The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's National Academy, is Scottish Charity No. SC000470
Facing up to climate change: the future of land use in Scotland
Aberdeen, 18 November 2011: Summary report of meeting
Professor Alan Werritty, Vice-Chair of the RSE’s ‘Facing up to Climate Change’ Inquiry, opened the
event. He highlighting the four objectives set out in the programme:
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To bring together stakeholders, policy-makers, researchers and industry representatives across
sectors in North East Scotland for strategic discussion on the future of land use in the area.
To communicate the findings of the recent RSE Inquiry Facing up to Climate Change: breaking
the barriers to a low-carbon Scotland and the latest research on the role of land use in
mitigating and adapting to climate change.
To provide an opportunity to consider and discuss the implications of the Scottish Government’s
Land Use Strategy for North East Scotland.
To feed in to the development of the Land Use Strategy Action Plan in the form of a report of
the event being provided to the Scottish Government Land Use Team.
Prof David Sugden: “RSE Inquiry Facing up to Climate Change: breaking the barriers to a
low-carbon Scotland”
Professor Sugden, Chair of the RSE Inquiry Committee, provided an overview of the work of the
RSE Inquiry Committee which reported in March 2011. Key findings of the report included:
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Climate change is a global challenge to society, questioning the way society is currently
organised and how it operates. Difficulty lies in changing behaviour, values and mindsets.
Policy-makers must be prepared for greater variability in weather patterns and more frequent
weather events, and not merely account for the average predicted changes.
City regions have a particularly important role to play in the transition to a low-carbon society.
There is an urgent need for more strategic planning at city and regional level.
The land use sector is capable of providing quick wins at relatively low cost. Land use
management should be integrated and some level of indicative planning is required.
Communities can both drive and directly benefit from the low-carbon transition; support should
address barriers of an absence of local-level finance and complex planning frameworks. This
would help to counter scepticism and encourage behaviour change.
Policies at local, Scottish and UK level, and beyond, must be coherent or they will cause
barriers and create cynicism.
Professor Colin Campbell: “RSE Inquiry Facing up to Climate Change: findings and
recommendations on land use”
Professor Campbell, Director of Science Excellence at The James Hutton Institute and member of
the RSE Inquiry Committee, highlighted the key findings of the Inquiry Report in relation to land use:
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Land is coming under increasing pressure. Policies and legislation must be integrated, ensuring
optimum use of Scotland’s land while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Climate change presents potential benefits, including an increase in potential prime agricultural
land, but we must be aware of trade-offs with ecosystem services.
The ecosystem approach is now well-recognised by the Scottish Government. The difficulty in
balancing ecosystem services is that some have clear economic value and others do not.
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The Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's National Academy, is Scottish Charity No. SC000470
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Nevertheless, it should be possible to assess general positive or negative impacts of a decision
on a range of services.
Land use provides opportunities to sequester and mitigate carbon, particularly in forestry, soils
and in restoring peatlands, at relatively low cost; and to bring additional benefits for other
ecosystem services while doing so. The LUS should assist in balancing demands.
Incentive frameworks, including effective carbon pricing and trading, the monitoring of carbon in
soils, and coupling payments to farming methods that protect soil carbon, would support land
managers in reducing carbon.
Greater innovation is needed in Scotland around using land jointly for timber, arable crops and
livestock. A focus farm championing this would be useful.
Implications of the findings of the inquiry include that:
- We should enhance our understanding of the land’s capability for carbon capture, and
look at how subsidy schemes can help to achieve this.
- We should consider a national target for soil carbon stock.
- Land managers should be better equipped to deal with integrated land use.
- If people more widely will benefit from land being used less productively, then
landowners should be incentivised to do so.
- Farming technology should focus not only on yield, but also on optimising resource use
and minimising GHG losses.
- The need to make increasingly complex decisions requires greater availability and
sharing of land use information.
- The LUS is welcome and marks a major milestone, but the Scottish Government must
identify more specific delivery mechanisms.
Professor Pete Smith: “Reducing emissions through land use: what the latest research tells
us”
Professor Smith, Professor of Soils & Global Change, University of Aberdeen, outlined the key
options for reducing emissions through land use:
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Initial efforts should be focussed on protecting and enhancing existing carbon stores in Scottish
soils.
The Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector in the UK is a net carbon sink
of 0.5Mt but this is a very delicate balance, the release of 0.04% of carbon held in the UK’s
peatlands would wipe out this sink.
Management guidelines recognising ecosystem services and the protection of stocks would
make a big impact.
The agriculture sector, particularly through land conversion to agriculture, is a relatively large
emitter of GHG emissions. Emissions fluctuate in relation to market prices for crops but this
could be countered by effective carbon pricing.
Land managers can also improve practices that impact on emissions levels, although such
changes may have cost implications.
The growing of energy crops to displace fossil fuels can have a positive or negative impact on
emissions from the agriculture sector. Research shows that in respect of GHG emission costs,
woodlands should not be replaced with any energy crop; grasslands should not be replaced
with oilseed rape; while the impact of oilseed rape on arable land is neutral but will, of course,
have implications for food crops and income streams.
Panel and floor discussion: “The role of land use in adapting to and mitigating climate
change”. Key points:
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Integrating the ecosystem approach at local level will require more time, deeper communication
with more people, and more awareness raising.
The ecosystem approach will be as important in urban areas as rural, particularly with respect
to the benefits of open spaces in towns and cities. More on this can be found in the recent
National Ecosystem Assessment.
Guidance at Scottish/local level on the forthcoming EU Directive on soil sealing would be
welcomed. Worry that there is insufficient data being collected on the land that is becoming
urbanised.
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The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's National Academy, is Scottish Charity No. SC000470
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Strategic planning must be given central importance and stable political support.
Managers need to be more aware of the broad range of environmental systems; institutions
such as SAC do now offer training in sustainable environment management.
Scientists urgently need to make politicians aware of the limits of Scotland’s natural resources
in supporting economic growth.
Should bear in mind that Scotland’s land and climate enable it to grow crops at high yields.
Therefore in a global context it makes sense to retain this activity in Scotland.
As long as food prices are high and carbon prices low there will be no incentive to land
managers to prioritise carbon storage over food production.
Options for land use, particularly agro-forestry, should be presented to farmers in language that
makes sense and clearly articulates the benefits of flexibility.
Professor Roger Crofts: “The Scottish Government’s Land Use Strategy”
Professor Crofts, Strategic Director of the Crichton Carbon Centre, provided context for the panel
discussion on the Land Use Strategy, setting out his take on why such a strategy was needed, and
the next steps on its implementation:
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The Land Use Strategy (LUS) marks a fundamental change in how we manage Scotland’s
natural resources in an increasingly complex world, setting out the vision and objectives for
Scotland’s land management.
Key questions is where we go from here, how will the high level strategy be linked to
regional/local level? Note that the LUS Action Plan will be published in December 2011.
The need for the LUS arose from increasing pressures and demands on Scotland’s land, and
the lack of existing mechanisms to integrate different types of land use or resolve conflicts.
Additionally, balancing demands on land use and the benefits to both land managers and wider
society will require a more sophisticated policy framework.
Further action needed includes proper documentation of the state of Scotland’s natural
resources, and their quantitative and qualitative value and constraints. Better scenario planning
will demand experts and policy advisers who can handle complexity.
Going forward, a clearer definition of the public benefits of land use is needed, enabling us to
define and value natural assets in terms of non-market benefits.
The LUS must be grounded in such a way as to become meaningful to managers and public
bodies. Indicative plans and pilot/demonstration studies could be valuable.
The LUS must set the Scottish Government’s purpose of sustainable economic growth within
the realistic constraints of its natural resources, and refocus the National Planning Framework
on finding balance with the environment that supports the population.
The reformed CAP and SRDP should reward land managers for good environmental
stewardship and the protection/provision of ecosystem services.
Panel session: “The Land Use Strategy – a North East Scotland perspective”
David Jennings, Aberdeen City & Shire Strategic Development Planning Authority
 The LUS, together with marine plans and the planning framework, helps to put Town & Country
planning into context. The SDPA will be considering how these plans link with wider objectives,
the complex frameworks that influence land management, and mechanisms for integration and
delivery.
Gale Beattie, Development Plan Team, Aberdeen City Council
 The LUS is a welcome tool to support integration: sustainable development, making the most of
the resources we have, is key. The Action Plan must bring a degree of realism, addressing
tensions and conflicts between economic and sustainable development.
Lorna Paterson, National Farmers Union Scotland
 Key challenge for land managers is the lack of clear, understandable information and guidance
on what land use options are most appropriate for them, within the bigger picture. Better
analysis of land and its potential, and guidance on the balance of priorities and compromises
that must be made, together with flexibility to make common sense decisions, would be of great
use.
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The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's National Academy, is Scottish Charity No. SC000470
Jamie Farquhar, Confor (Confederation of Forest Industries)
 Challenge for the LUS is how it handles the interface between farming and forestry; forestry is
already spatially documented and highly regulated. Commercial forestry is not well-recognised
but is of global importance. Agro-forestry will require a change in mindset among Scotland’s
farmers, choice and information must be provided to support them.
Provost Bill Howatson, Aberdeenshire Council
 The LUS helps to integrate and drive land use toward multiple benefits and this is welcome, but
a key challenge in Aberdeenshire will be that 83% of land is privately owned. Policy must be
stable and fit for purpose, so worth taking time to ensure it is right the first time, involving
stakeholders and wider society. Post-2013 CAP will be hugely influential.
Panel and floor discussion: “The future of land use in North East Scotland”. Key points:
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Must bear in mind that power over decision-making on land use rests principally with land
owners, although they do have to comply with statutory requirements on land.
Need to consider mechanisms for control, which are currently well developed in the urban
arena, but looser in the rural context.
Post-2013 CAP must have clear mechanisms for delivery.
Uncertainty over how Scotland will deliver requirements of the Water Framework Directive, and
how the LUS will interface with this.
What is the appropriate scale of delivery of integrated land use planning? Must ensure
collaboration with communities, engage with land owners and consider strategic plans for local
authority areas and river basin plans.
Need real engagement: must consider how to make the LUS, and the development process,
more real and relevant to people to ensure engagement from the outset.
The ecosystem approach taken in the LUS gives us a tool to look at costs and benefits of
decisions and resolve debates in a more informed way. This will, by its nature, require
engagement between a wider range of stakeholders, more of the time.
Need to simplify some of the discussion: identify priorities, set appropriate targets and be
realistic about the compromises that will have to be made.
There is complexity and incoherence in existing regulations which often work against the lowcarbon agenda, leading to confusion and inaction. The Scottish Government must take a lead in
identifying and dealing with such inconsistencies.
Need to accept that even where full information on environmental impacts and economic
impacts of proposed developments is known, politics will come into play.
Some strategic plan for the siting of wind turbines should not be out of reach, having been done
for fish farms and forestry. A strategic plan could help to overcome widespread opposition to
wind turbines by ensuring that they are appropriately placed.
This would also help to integrate wind farms with forestry as there is currently little consistency
in policies and planning across Scotland, leading to forest estate being lost to turbines.
Professor Alan Werritty thanked the speakers, panellists and delegates for taking part in the
event. He pulled out a number of key points to close:
 ‘Rachel Carson vs. Adam Smith’: need for multifunctional land use management, a move away
from reliance on market forces and greater value on ecosystem services.
 We must protect carbon stock in soils; explore options for agro-forestry, and consider the role of
commercial forestry in more depth. Bioenergy must be carefully planned.
 The LUS is a welcome high-level document but must now be grounded. What is the optimal
scale of delivery and how do we get community and stakeholder buy-in?
 We need a better definition of the term ‘public good’ and to recognise that sustainable economic
growth is an oxymoron. An ecosystem approach will help to value the non-economic services
land provides, and aid in the resolution of conflicts.
 Reform of CAP provides interesting opportunities and must deliver benefits; while existing
regulations need to be reviewed in light of the low-carbon agenda.
The full note of the meeting, PowerPoint presentations and the RSE’s Facing up to Climate
Change report can be found at www.achangingclimate.co.uk
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