Cairngorms Cli­mate Conference

Monday 9^th March 2020

Work­shop 1: Changes in Land Use to achieve ​‘Net-Zero with Nature’

Key Speak­er: Ham­ish Trench, CEO Scot­tish Land Com­mis­sion Host: Will Boyd Wal­lis, Head of Land Man­age­ment Facilitator:

Pur­pose

The pur­pose of the work­shop was to look at how we best influ­ence land use to achieve Net-Zero with and for nature. Address­ing the threats asso­ci­ated with cli­mate change brings sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenges and yet also great oppor­tun­it­ies. We need to take on our respons­ib­il­it­ies, address the risks, be ambi­tious and be real­ist­ic about what is achiev­able and what we must do.

Brief over­view

The work­shop was led by Will Boyd-Wal­lis (CNPA Head of Land man­age­ment) and Chris White­head (con­sult­ant for Wild Think­ing) and was atten­ded by 64 people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Ham­ish Trench, CEO of the Scot­tish Land Com­mis­sion ini­ti­ated the dis­cus­sion by high­light­ing the change we can expect and the degree to which we must respond and by ask­ing us: Who should be involved, who should bene­fit, who should pay and finally who decides?

We broke out into sep­ar­ate groups to answer four key questions:

I. What are the main oppor­tun­it­ies in land use to help address cli­mate change?

1. What role should the NP play in achiev­ing Scotland’s nation­al land use targets?
2. What are the main chal­lenges asso­ci­ated with land use change and how do we address them?
3. What needs to be done to achieve the neces­sary land use change?

Main points raised

1. What are the main oppor­tun­it­ies in land use to help address cli­mate change?

• CNP as a major Car­bon store
• Changes in drivers & policies — car­bon off­set­ting / economics
• Changes in pub­lic attitudes
• Take oppor­tun­ity to rethink soil con­ser­va­tion, deer man­age­ment, mar­ket­ing /​use of loc­al products

2. What role should the NP play in achiev­ing Scotland’s nation­al land use targets?

• A place to pion­eer and lead/​broker land use change
• A place to sup­port, build skills & capa­city to change
• A place to test new ideas

3. What are the main chal­lenges asso­ci­ated with land use change and how do we address them?

• Lack of sense of urgency!
• Res­ist­ance to change e.g. through stat­utory designations
• Envir­on­ment­al / hab­it­at and geophysical
• Per­ceived and real cul­tur­al & social challenges
• Lack of capa­city in some sig­ni­fic­ant sec­tors and this is con­strain­ing pace of change
• Policy changes are needed e.g. agri­cul­tur­al sup­port from ​‘land based’ to ​‘action based’
• Gov­ern­ment invest­ment must focus on devel­op­ing neces­sary skills
• Risk-based approach to mit­ig­a­tion & fisc­al instru­ments are required
• There is a ten­sion between deliv­er­ing change at a pace and bring­ing com­munit­ies / the pub­lic along

4. What needs to be done to achieve the neces­sary land use change?

• Cap­tiv­ate the sense of urgency
• Urgently to get new pay­ments schemes in place
• Get buy-in from stake­hold­ers e.g. land man­agers, res­id­ents and visitors
• Provide inform­a­tion & com­mu­nic­a­tion to all groups of stakeholders
• Will­ing­ness to test the rules e.g. sea­son­al­ity of peat­land restoration

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

August 2020