LINK Thinks

LINK Thinks is a space for members and others to express their views about Scotland’s environment. If you would like to contribute a blog please contact information@scotlink.org. The opinions expressed in this blog are the author's and not necessarily those of the wider LINK membership.

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Enjoying Scotland’s Coast with Minimal Impact.

01 Jul 2021

A Blog from Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust     Scotland’s coastline is rich with marine wildlife and is a fantastic place to connect with nature, slow down and soak up some vitamin sea. Over a quarter of all species of whale, dolphin, and porpoise, have been recorded here, and that’s not all… Scotland is […]

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The New Parliament Debates the Climate and Nature Emergencies

22 Jun 2021

  This month saw this parliamentary session’s first debate on the nature and climate emergency, centered on a motion put forward by Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport Michael Matheson. After an election campaign in which nature and climate featured prominently – through discourse around the climate and nature emergencies, but not least […]

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Where is the future for Scotland’s food and farming sectors?

11 Jun 2021

This blog, from Dr. Deborah Long, Chief Officer of Scottish Environment LINK, was first published in Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s magazine, Spring 2021.   Land use and land ownership is a live issue in Scotland. Debate around who owns Scotland and what they do with that land has never gone away. How land is managed […]

Mike Bolam 2005

Are you a Nature Champion?

04 Jun 2021

Scottish Environment LINK first launched its Species Champions initiative in 2013. Since then, it has far outstripped the success we thought it might have had and not just in Scotland. It has inspired similar programmes in Wales, Northern Ireland and England. Conceived in the wildlife garden at Balallan House in Stirling, the idea was enthusiastically […]

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Urge your SNP and Green MSPs to prioritise nature restoration in party cooperation negotiations and together we can revive nature in Scotland

01 Jun 2021

Last week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP and Scottish Green Party co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater announced that their respective parties would hold ‘formal talks’ on a potential cooperation agreement. The SNP-Green Party talks represent an exciting opportunity for the new government to prioritise nature’s recovery by adopting statutory Nature Recovery Targets […]

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Statutory nature recovery targets can prevent another lost decade for nature in Scotland

01 Jun 2021

Mass extinction We are living through a mass extinction.  Since 1970, our world has seen a drop of almost 70 per cent in the average population of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, and over a quarter of assessed species are now threatened by extinction.  While developing countries in sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia repeatedly […]

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Call to put nature at the heart of Scotland’s post-covid-19 recovery

22 May 2021

MORE than 35 organisations, including primary school children, have joined forces to call on the First Minister to put nature at the heart of Scotland’s post-Covid-19 recovery. Together, they want the newly elected government to take urgent action to halt the rapid decline in Scottish wildlife and plants and to see legally binding targets by 2022 to help set Scotland’s nature on track to recovery by 2030.

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Nature, our long lost friend

06 May 2021

It’s been said often enough, but many of us have never before appreciated or even noticed our natural environment as much as we have since the pandemic. Like a long lost friend, nature has helped to soften the blow of a tough few months peppered with restrictions after restrictions. For me highlights have been scuffing leaves along my regular woodland path in autumn

Puffin © Charlie Phillips

Scotland’s nature can recover

04 May 2021

The month of May, I contend, is one of Scotland’s best. Even when spring has been slow to show itself, suddenly in May it puts on a performance, full of bees and blossom and bright green leaves. Nature’s drive for renewal is evident all around us. Added to that, May is Scotland’s sunniest month, and when the sun shines in May I can fool myself that it’s going to stay with us right through to September.

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