‘Economic wasteland?’ activism risks the Highlands Fears that rise of environmental becoming a ‘tourist playground’
Marine supply boss fears a new phase of ‘Highland Clearances’ in Scotland due to environmental campaigners ‘opposing economic development’. By
DRIVEN from their homes and cast to the four corners of the world, the impact of the Highland Clearances would be felt for generations of Scots.
While wealthy landowners, often from afar, cleared vast areas to press ahead with their money-making farming schemes, thousands were forced from ancestral homes to seek work in new places, and even different countries.
Now a leading Scottish businessman has suggested that the Highlands and Islands could be heading for a new phase of “Highland Clearances”, sparked by an imbalance between vocal environmental campaigners anxious to protect the area’s precious natural heritage and businesses seeking to create jobs.
Gael Force Group managing director Stewart Graham compared the impact of a vocal minority opposing economic development in the region to the devastating 18th and 19th-century Clearances which saw farming communities evicted from the land to further the interests of often distant landowners.
He also warned the swing towards protecting the environment – which he suggests is often driven by people from outside the area – could result in vast parts of the country becoming economic wastelands and little more than “a playground for tourists”.
Delicate balance
HIS comments have shone a spotlight on the delicate balance between protecting the region’s precious environment and landscape – which, in turn, has helped create a booming tourism sector – with the need to create and retain jobs across other industries.
And they hint at a simmering division between locals anxious to find secure jobs which require a range of skills, and those who may be from outside the area with tourism or environmental interests in Highland beauty spots.
He said: “Like the Clearances, once again the welfare of the local people who work the land and the sea is being considered as secondary to the narrow interests of a minority, often not rooted in the area, who care not for the economic wellbeing of other local people.
“We need to put people, their livelihoods and their wellbeing first.”
However, his comments have been criticised by one environmental group as “outdated and ill-informed”.
Ailsa McLellan co-ordinator of Our Seas, which represents businesses, bodies, individuals and organisations advocating for more sustainable approaches to Scottish seas, added: “The claim that those that care about the environment are not ‘local people rooted in the area’ is a dangerous fallacy that suits one divisive narrative.
“Community concerns around environmental impacts must not be minimised – they are fair and legitimate, and they do not mean that these people do not care about others, or the rural economy.”
She said: “The assertion that we must accept a degraded environment in the pursuit of jobs is outdated and ill-informed.” Mr Graham has been supported by Councillor Donald Crichton, chairman of the Western Isles Council’s Sustainable Development Committee, who pointed to a lack of balance between economy, community and environment.
He said: “Too often we have seen legitimate economic development opportunities being stymied by inappropriate and insensitive environmental legislation, and by bodies and individuals who have little interest in the economic and wider wellbeing of our communities.
“The economy of the Outer Hebrides is severely constrained and curtailed by a barrage of imposed legislation and regulation from Edinburgh and by the influence those who seek to thwart development can bring to bear.”
Cllr Crichton added: “The Outer Hebrides and the wider Highlands and Islands must be one of the most externally regulated economies in Europe and it is little wonder that business opportunities and economic growth are constantly hampered.”
Mr Graham’s business, Gael Force, supplies marine equipment and technology to the finfish aquaculture sector in the UK and Canada. It had been set to fulfil an order for equipment for a new fish farm planned by Organic Sea Harvest (OSH) at Balmaqueen in Skye when it was suddenly rejected by Highland Council despite having been recommended for approval.
It was turned down after a six-hour planning meeting in January heard passionate appeals from locals, including
Flodigarry Hotel owner Bette Temming, who argued the unique selling point of her business – the pristine land and seascape – would be destroyed by the fish farm.
Fish farm plans rejected
OPPONENTS of the proposals were said to have shed “tears of joy” when it was rejected. However, Mr Graham said the farm would have created nine direct jobs, and the cancellation of orders for equipment built by his firm had led to more than 20 redundancies.
He added: “It seems that we are prepared to tolerate someone dying from
If we do not see a change of behaviour in the support of development and growing the economy, we will be a failing nation, with rural areas becoming largely inactive
hunger and homelessness and the lack of a job, but not prepared to tolerate ‘our’ view or environment being altered. The depressing familiarity of narrow interest groups’ objections to developments – often by an outspoken minority – is reaching a crisis across the Highlands and Islands and needs to be addressed.
“If we do not see a change of behaviour in the support of development and growing the economy, we will be a failing nation, with rural areas becoming largely inactive economically – a playground for tourists who are welcome but who come and go, a place where the will of the few suppresses the opportunity of the many.”
The fine balance between protecting the environment without sacrificing jobs was raised recently when creel fisherman and scallop drivers responded angrily to a move to ban them from the Inner Sound off Skye, an area known to be one of the largest nesting sites for criticallyendangered flapper skate.
The decision by the Scottish Government to give the area marine protected area (MPA) status angered fishermen who said they faced losing their livelihoods as a result.
Alistair Sinclair, national co-ordinator of the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation, warned: “Jobs will go with huge impacts on coastal communities, future opportunities for employment for our young folk will disappear with entire communities being affected.”
Questions over how to balance economic development with environmental issues come at a time when unemployment in some parts of Highland is said to have almost trebled in recent months, with billions of pounds wiped from the tourism industry as a result of Covid.
Unemployment doubled
IN December, it emerged the Highlands unemployment figure had nearly doubled since March 2020, with young people hit hardest of all.
There were more than 6,500 people out of work, with concerns that the figure would soar to more than 10,000 this year.
Tourism has boomed in the Highlands and Islands in recent years, while traditional industries such as fishing have plunged into decline.
However, according to Highlands and Islands Enterprise, cash injections have helped support jobs across a range of sectors.
Figures for last year showed a £50.4 million investment over 2019/20, which in turn is said to have helped create and/ or retain 646.75 full-time equivalent jobs.
Recent investments have been made in major developments including £8.3m in the east quay at Nigg energy port, £10m in Stornoway’s port development and £4.5m in the European Marine Science Park at Dunstaffnage near Oban.
Ms McLellan added: “There are legitimate discussions to be had around our growing tourism economy – it needs management like every other industry – but Scotland’s marine economic statistics published by the Scottish Government in 2017 show that marine tourism alone made £594m gross added value and employed 28,300 people in coastal communities.”
She added: “We are in the midst of a biodiversity and climate crisis which is already impacting coastal communities around the world, and the Scottish Marine Assessment 2020 shows that Scotland’s inshore waters are in crisis.
“Since the removal of a three-mile limit on trawling in 1984, and the industrialisation of much of the fishing fleet, marine biodiversity has declined, many fisheries have crashed, and fishermen numbers have fallen – our own fates are inextricably linked to the health of the environment.”
Ms McLellan added: “In areas where damaging fisheries have been excluded, such as Lyme Bay in England, the environment has flourished alongside a vibrant fishing industry, showing what is possible with meaningful marine management.”