SLE chief hits out at ‘lack of joined-up thinking’
Scotland stand son the cusp of “seismic” changes in land use – yet despite the seemingly endless round of consultations, strategy documents, pilot programmes and projects, there has been a lack of joined-up thinking to translate these into a coherent rural policy. That was a recurring theme at a major conference in Edinburgh yesterday which focused on the threats and opportunities facing Scotland’s countryside.
Speaking at Scottish Land& Estate’ s an nual spring conference, the organisation’s chairman David Johnstone said that, while Brexit had been the focus of much of the debate in the past, it was far from the only driver for change in rural areas.
He said that it was inevitable that the support systems which had been put in place through the EU would decline and the dependence of rural industry was always going to have to be addressed: “We have to be blunt and ask ourselves have we really seen our countryside getting prepared over the last decade in the lead-up to this inevitable reduction in funding?
“We simply cannot bury our heads in the sand or hope for a long-term bailout from the Scottish Government or Westminster if our business models don’t stack up.”
However, despite a list of some of the initiatives launched and review groups set up by the Scottish Government to draw up new rural policy outlined in a flying visit by rural affairs minister Mairi Gougeon, there was later a consensus that these were not leading to joined up policy making.
Stating that policy tended to operate in parallel rather than in a cohesive manner, ProfessorS arahSke rrat, director of rural policy with the SR U C, said: “We hear year after year of the pilot projects and programmes which are launched with the intention of addressing the problems – but these often conclude leaving tensions unresolved and opportunities not realised.”
And while the gamut of threats and opportunities which ran from schemes to allocate carbon credits to those both reinstating and protecting Scotland’s globally significant p eat bogs, to the relative social, cultural and economic and environmental merits of sheep farming and tree planting, a single practical point from the audience highlighted the lack of policy coherence.
Alison Petrie, from St rat hard le in Perthshire, said that while there was plenty of talk about addressing environmental issues, little had been done to help those willing to take practical steps.
“Silage wrap – what do we do with it,” asked Petrie who highlighted what she said was a growing disposal problem on many arms around the country since on-farm incineration had been banned earlier this year.
Pointing to the difficulties which farmers had getting this waste collected – and the huge environmental cost of carting it about be country to be recycled– she said that local initiatives to address the problem by setting up a processing plant had failed to gain any government backing.
“This is symptomatic,” said John stone .“While there is plenty of high-level debate going on, no one is looking at the day-to-day issues which are often the real problem.”
bhenderson@farming.co.uk