Sustainable Land Use Taskforce

8 March 2013, , Press Releases

Countdown for the Countryside - 5 Days left to urge MEPs to vote for nature-friendly farming

A group of eleven wildlife organisations have come together through the Joint LINKs group to urge everyone to press their MEPs to vote for farming that supports nature in one of the most significant votes ever held in the European Parliament.

27 June 2012, LINK Sustainable Land Use Taskforce, Position Papers

How can we get the best from our land? Putting integrated land use into practice

A report from John Thomson on behalf of LINK's Sustainable Land Use taskforce.  The report is intended to contribute to discussions on the implementation of the Scottish Government's Land Use Strategy, a requirement of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

15 March 2012, LINK, Parliamentary Briefings

LINK Briefing on Scotland's Land Use Strategy - One Year On.

The 2 page briefing explains why we have the Land Use Strategy, its aims, its influence, what progress has been made to date, and how we can make the most of it. The briefing sets out what LINK will be doing to make sure the LUS fulfils its potential.  

16 December 2010, LINK Sustainable Land Use Taskforce, Consultation Responses

LINK's response to the Land Use Strategy Consultation

LINK believes that the Scottish Governments' draft Land Use Strategy:

• presents direction and aspiration but is not a strategy with clear goals and action;
• is weak and unambitious, and fails to set out proposals and policies to meet Governments’ sustainable land use objectives, as required by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009;
• needs a more definitive statement on how it should be incorporated into governance structures and influence other existing land use strategies;
• is limited in scope, particularly with regard to urban land use, landscape, recreation and access & transport;
• lacks clarity regarding how it will be developed and monitored; and
• in its current form, is unlikely to move Scotland towards more sustainable use of land resources and the optimal delivery of multiple benefits.

5 November 2010, LINK Sustainable Land Use Taskforce, Parliamentary Briefings

Initial Response to Draft Land Use Strategy

This briefing contains Scottish Environment LINK’s initial response to the Scottish Government’s draft Land Use Strategy consultation

The draft Land Use Strategy (LUS) is a ‘direction setter’ and aspirational document, not a strategy with clear goals and action. LINK welcomes many of the ideas and statements within the draft LUS but believes that it is weak in its vision, goals and action, and it lacks specific commitments. In its current form, it is unlikely to move Scotland towards more sustainable use of land resources and the optimal delivery of multiple benefits, such as GHG emission reduction, increased physical activity, resilient communities and diverse local economies...

3 September 2010, LINK Sustainable Land Use Taskforce, Parliamentary Briefings

LINK Sustainable Land Use Case Studies

Scotland's land is used in a huge variety of ways and provides a large number of beneits from food and fuel to wildlife and wellbeing.  The need to get more from our limited land resources has increased in recent years and there is concern that this will lead to further environmental impact.  Climate change adds another dangerous pressure.

LINK's ten case studies demonstrate what multifunctional land use can look like and the benefits it can provide for the economy society and the environment.  They highlight aproaches to land use and management which can be applied much more widely in Scotland and show what can be achieved through more integrated and different ways of working.

12 May 2010, , Parliamentary Briefings

Oral Evidence on Scotland's Hills and Islands

Scottish Environment LINK give Evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Rural Affairs and Environment Committee as they look at the Royal Society of Edinburgh's 2008 report on Scotland's hills and islands. 

23 April 2010, Joint LINK, Correspondence

Draft report on the future of the CAP after 2013

A letter from the Joint LINKs to George Lyon MEP regarding his draft report on the future of the CAP after 2013.

We were disappointed that many of the points we raised in response to your working document have not been taken into account, particularly regarding an environmentally focused evolution of the CAP to become a European Sustainable Land Management Policy...

8 April 2010, LINK Sustainable Land Use Taskforce, Consultation Responses

LINK response to the Land Use Strategy SEA Scoping Report

LINK members welcome the opportunity to comment on this consultation and to support the development of the Land Use Strategy (LUS). LINK produced its ‘Living with the Land’ report in 2009 which set out LINK’s proposals for the vision, principles and definitions which, LINK believes, should underpin the LUS. We believe that the LUS has the potential to, and should, move land use planning away from a sectoral approach to one which achieves multiple objectives. It must seek synergies and reward multi-benefit land use, and must aim to resolve conflicts. Decisions need to be based on principles of sustainable development, in which environmental and social goals have equal status to economic ones.

19 February 2010, LINK Sustainable Land Use Taskforce, Position Papers

Five Key Steps for Success

This paper identifies five key steps that LINK considers are fundamental to the success of the Sustainable Land Use Strategy (SLUS), as follows:

1. Defining the status of the SLUS
2. Defining the scope of the SLUS
3. Establishing the formal process for producing this and subsequent versions of the SLUS
4. Achieving better policy integration
5. Underpinning the SLUS with the ecosystem approach

See also: Living with the Land our proposals for Scotlands first sustainable landuse strategy

2 December 2009, LINK, Position Papers

Living with the Land

This paper sets out the views of member bodies of Scottish Environment LINK regarding the land use strategy to be prepared under Section 57 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. This strategy is referred to below as the “Sustainable Land Use Strategy” (SLUS).

Although its main purpose is to tackle climate change, the SLUS provides real opportunities to deliver other public objectives. It has potential to support landscape and wildlife protection, to ensure more co-ordinated planning and delivery between agencies, to reward multi-benefit land use and to resolve conflicts between different land uses.

2 December 2009, LINK, Press Releases

We Must Learn to Live WITH the Land

Scottish Environment LINK today published “Living with the Land”, a paper outlining proposed content for the Sustainable Land Use Strategy (SLUS)

"For too long we in Scotland have lived off the land, now we need to live with the land. Instead of land being viewed as simply a resource to be exploited for profit and pleasure, we must learn to nurture and sustain the natural qualities of all of our land because its health is absolutely essential to people’s well-being