Its nearly Valentine’s Day & our Species Champion MSPs have been busy showing their love for Scotland’s biodiversity!
This Valentine, Species Champions are showing their love for their species as part of Stop Climate Chaos’ For the Love Campaign (FTLO). FTLO gives people a way of showing what they love and how concerned they are about how climate change will effect it. You can read more about FTLO here. Our Champions are showing their love for their species and explaining how it is threatened by climate change and how we need to act now to save them.
Check out our video of the Champion MSPs professing their love this Valentine’s below. We didn’t lock ’em up in any dungeon; they came willing to record messages of love and warning during their busy schedule at Parliament. Make sure to also head to our YouTube channel to see individual videos of the MSPs waxing lyrical about their species.
Yet again, we’re delighted that another amazing species has been championed. This time the stunning Garden Tiger which is predominantly active at night has been championed by Margaret McCulloch MSP for Central Scotland.
Scottish Environment LINK’s Marine Taskforce will be hosting the following event:
How can marine spatial planning lead to a thriving natural marine environment in Scotland? This event will take place in the Conference Room at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Arboretum Place, Edinburgh EH3 5NZ) on Thursday 12th February 2015 from 2pm – 6pm, followed by an informal reception and networking (until approximately 8pm).
The full programme is available to download. The event will feature presentations from keynote speakers in the planning sector:
• Anne-Michelle Slater (University of Aberdeen), a specialist in terrestrial and marine spatial planning law. • Rachel Shucksmith (NAFC Marine Centre, Shetland), manager of the Shetland Marine Spatial Plan project.
The presentations will be followed by group workshop sessions focusing on key topics under the theme: what tools are needed to take marine spatial planning from paper to practice? With marine spatial planning coming to the fore at national level, this event will facilitate timely thinking on how it can, and must, deliver sustainable development and ecosystem enhancement for Scotland’s seas. We are keen to gain a wide range of perspectives at this event and would welcome attendance from anyone with an interest in landscapes, terrestrial planning, ecological restoration, environmental law, participative democracy (or decision-making) and related areas.
For any further information, please contact Esther Brooker (esther @ scotlink.org).
We look forward to what promises to be a positive and productive event.
We are delighted to announce that our latest Species Champion is Liz Smith MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife who is now championing the Slender Scotch Burnet Moth. This rare moth is confined to the steep, south-facing slopes under basalt cliffs on Mull and is on the Scottish Biodiversity List; not a moment too soon to be championed then! Find out more by reading its’ fact sheet.
FOR THE first time, we now have the means to monitor and look after the ecological health of our seas, says Calum Duncan
FOR centuries, our seas have been heavily exploited for their fish, and as the highways of our trade. More recently a host of different, new industries, such as fossil fuel extraction, fish farming, recreation and renewable energy generation, have emerged and our seas are now far busier. Will the currently emerging planning system for our seas ensure that we manage and balance all of these interests for the wider public benefit?
Deep in the cultural fibre of coastal communities around Scotland, the decline of our fisheries and the broader health of our seas is felt as a painful environmental, economic and social loss. Village quaysides once bustled with the traffic of small boats, but our inshore fleet now struggles to make ends meet. Our bigger ports have become sites to facilitate industrial-scale fishing and provide the logistics for an energy boom, now switching all-too-slowly from fossil fuels to cleaner renewables. Our connections with the sea are changing.
Our seas and the life within them are a shared, national resource, yet until recently Scotland has not had the means to manage it effectively. Separate regimes, from Holyrood, Westminster and Brussels have regulated and licensed the different industries. They operated in regulatory silos, and the ecological health of our seas paid the price, entering a state of serious decline.
Under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 (and its UK counterpart) we now have the golden opportunity to create an effective, integrated planning system to monitor and plan for the combined impacts of all this activity – and to deliver the statutory duty to “protect and, where appropriate, enhance” the marine environment.
Just as the current debate on land reform is about the best expression of the public and environmental interest, so is the implementation of the Marine Act. For the first time, we will be able to plan how we comprehensively look after our shared marine resources for the long-term.
The framework of the new, statutory National Marine Plan (NMP) can provide a mechanism for us to develop responsible industries, create jobs and taxable revenue streams for the benefit of all Scotland, and bring new hope to our coastal communities.
Amid the political ferment in post-referendum Scotland, Holyrood is currently in the process of ratifying the country’s first ever NMP. As we take this step we face a major choice. We can have a plan that continues to pretend that the seas have room for unlimited growth, or we can have one that seeks to repair their health and restore their potential. It is not clear, currently, in what direction we are headed. A quick look at the evidence suggests serious confusion.
There are grave concerns being voiced about growth targets for the aquaculture industry. Targets to increase production of farmed salmon and other products by 2020 might help to underpin trade relations with China, but they have never been subjected to the appropriate rigours of a planning system.
The draft NMP also contains disturbing contradictions as it seeks to maximise recovery of oil and gas reserves whilst also meeting ambitious climate change targets. Amazingly, the draft plan fails to even acknowledge the direct climate change impacts of burning oil and gas. This is a considerable weakness, given climate change is arguably the greatest challenge facing us all.
There is also a danger that the emergent Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) will lead towards few changes in fisheries management, despite strong emerging evidence that limits to dredging and trawling in inshore waters could lead to clear economic and environmental gains.
Instead of this confusion, we need to view environmental management not as a constraint, but as a means to achieve and safeguard the common good. Scottish Environment LINK’s members believe, firmly and fundamentally, that the NMP must set out a stronger vision of how to enhance our diminished marine environment. An invigorated Scotland can lead the world here and think for the longer term.
The lessons from land use can provide some encouragement. Our more experienced terrestrial planners, in forestry for example, have become well accustomed to thinking over long planning timeframes. The Scottish Forestry Strategy in 2009 established a programme to increase woodland cover in Scotland from 17 per cent to around 25 per cent in the second half of this century, to deliver broad economic, environmental and social objectives. Gradually, forestry developments are being integrated with other land uses, under the Land Use Strategy established by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act (2009).
We should apply some real vision and approach marine planning and “seabed use” in the same way as we do for terrestrial planning and land use strategy – but, as the emerging marine plans are scrutinised in Parliament, this has become urgent.
As the plans are finalised, LINK members will continue to press for a clear, long-term vision and the broader public interest.
Calum Duncan is convenor of Scottish Environment LINK’s marine taskforce
This article was first published by The Scotsman on January 13th 2015
This adorable species is the latest to be championed under the LINK Species Champion initiative. Jamie Hepburn MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth becomes the latest Species Champion totaling up to 72 MSPs Species Champions and 87 unique species! To find out more about this species click here!
LINK’s Species Champion initiative was Highly Commended at the RSPB Scotland Nature of Scotland Awards under the category of ‘Innovation Award’ on November 20th 2014. We’re also delighted to hear that Claudia Beamish MSP who is the Species Champion for the Sea Trout and Forester Moth won Politician of the Year Award. The awards were an excellent recognition and celebration of all the hard work done by those who care about the environment, especially all the amazing volunteers! Here our Advocacy Officer, Rea Cris along with another Species Champion Rob Gibson MSP for the Rusty Bog Moss, show off our award.
Now is the time to enhance the legacy of John Muir, says John Mayhew
Scotland’s landscapes rank amongst the best in the world in their richness, quality and diversity. We have wild mountains, pristine rivers and lochs, ancient forests and stunning coastline and islands – all rich in wildlife and history.
Our landscapes enhance our quality of life and our well-being. They give us inspiration and enjoyment. They provide great opportunities for outdoor recreation, including walking, cycling, canoeing and mountaineering. They are one of the main reasons why people visit Scotland, and they provide important economic benefits through tourism, our largest industry.
So, with landscapes of such quality you might expect Scotland to have several national parks – the principal tool used across the world to safeguard and manage fine landscapes. Although there are more than 3,500 national parks across the world (including 60 in Canada, 29 in Norway and 14 in New Zealand) Scotland has only two. Both parks are quite recently set up, despite the Scottish Campaign for National Parks (SCNP) and the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland (APRS) campaigning for them for more than 60 years. These organisations feel that more of Scotland’s landscapes deserve national park status, and argue that the Scottish Government should do more to implement its 2011 Manifesto commitment to “work with communities to explore the creation of new National Parks”.
A recent report by SCNP and APRS, Unfinished Business, summarises the benefits which national park status brings, and recommends improvements to the operation of our current and future national parks. It sets out criteria against which any future park should be assessed, and proposes seven further areas which are considered to meet these criteria – including at least one coastal and marine national parks. Unfinished Business can be found on the APRS or SCNP websites – and the campaign for Scottish Government action keeps going.
Support for the proposals in the report have been formally backed by many of Scotland’s leading environmental membership charities – including the National Trust for Scotland, RSPB Scotland, Ramblers Scotland, the Scottish Wild Land Group and Woodland Trust Scotland. SCNP and APRS work in partnership on the issue with all of these bodies through Scottish Environment LINK’s National Parks Task Force. And, crucially, local people from several of the proposed national park areas – including from the Cheviots, Galloway and Mull – have contacted us to support the campaign.
“National Park” is the leading internationally recognised designation for places of the highest national importance for our natural heritage, including landscape, wildlife and recreation. It is the highest accolade which can be given to an area within its national context.
Many national parks are truly wild. Others, as in Scotland, are wholly or partly inhabited, working areas. They stand, proudly, alongside world-renowned places including Jotunheimen in Norway, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, Cradle Mountain in Tasmania, the Karakoram in Pakistan and Yosemite in the US.
Scotland’s national parks bring environmental, social and economic benefits to locals, visitors and to Scotland as a whole. They provide a focus on a particular place, mechanisms to stimulate conservation management, and additional resources to reflect their importance to the nation. Within their statutory framework, they benefit from an agreed plan designed to safeguard their special qualities for future generations whilst managing competing pressures such as tourism, transport, energy, agriculture, forestry and fishing in integrated and positive ways. They inspire pride and passion amongst local people and visitors.
The Scottish Government provides funding to sustain the communities in and around national parks, encouraging jobs which support and look after these special places. The parks bring visitors to remote areas, benefit tourism, farming and fishing, and generate new commercial and marketing opportunities. National parks supplement and add value to existing designations rather than duplicate or replace them. The designation is fixed, so, while other arrangements may come and go, national parks are rarely abolished.
Given this range of benefits, the two existing national parks represent remarkable value for money at a combined cost of about £14 million per annum. Several of the proposed national parks would cost less than this, as they would cover smaller areas and require less complex management structures and fewer staff.
Next month marks 100 years since the death of John Muir, the Scottish naturalist, explorer and writer who inspired the creation of the world’s first national parks in 19th-century US. He is known as the “Father of National Parks”.
It would be a particularly fitting tribute to John Muir if the Scottish Government were to announce the start of the process to create Scotland’s next national park.
[John Mayhew represents the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland – one of LINK’s members- on the National Parks Task Force]
This article was first published by The Scotsman on 17th November 2014
Scottish Environment LINK are delighted to announce that Ken Macintosh MSP brings the total of MSP Species Champions to 70, well over the halfway mark. Ken is the Species Champion for the Black Grouse and,LINK will continue to search suitable match-ups for the remaining MSPs.
Current planning laws heavily favour the developers, says Clare Symonds
CAMPAIGN group Planning Democracy asked MSPs on Holyrood’s petitions committee recently to consider the case for equal rights of appeal for communities in planning decisions. The need for this petition comes from the strong feeling of injustice among communities in Scotland who have been affected by decisions to grant planning permission.
Under current rules, if a mine, power station or large-scale housing scheme is rejected, the developer can appeal. If the same development is approved, the community has no right to have the decision reviewed.
In other words, the public have no equal right of appeal. Many people affected by controversial planning decisions find it hard to get their heads around this blatant inequality.
“It is incredible that in a democratic society no member of the public, even those most badly affected, can appeal against the grant of a planning permission, no matter how strong the grounds for appeal may be,” commented Bill Frew of Canonbie Residents Association who are opposing plans for unconventional gas in their area.
But what difference would an equal rights of appeal make? At present there is only a very weak link between public input and decision-making. There is little incentive for developers or planning authorities to respond to issues raised by the public as there is no effective mechanism for holding them to account. Equality of appeal rights could provide the necessary incentive to ensure that community views are more assiduously sought and listened to.
In a recent case that goes against many local plan and conservation policies, community councillor in Edinburgh Arne Strid said, after the approval of the much-opposed Craighouse development: “The sheer weight of public opinion and objections expressed only goes to emphasise that there is little point in allowing planning applications to be commented on by residents.”
A right of appeal for communities would ensure, further, that planning authorities and the government would be less tempted to circumvent public scrutiny of decisions in which the decision-maker has a vested interest.
In the case of the Viking Windfarm on Shetland, the Shetland Islands Council was indirectly, through a trust, the co-developer of the scheme. The council’s lack of objection meant there did not have to be a public inquiry despite a substantive objection from Scottish Natural Heritage over concerns about protected birds.
Frank Hay of Sustainable Shetland said: “In the case of Sustainable Shetland over the consent of the Viking Windfarm on Shetland, an appeal process would have been a far better alternative to the continuing expensive court actions.”
Another advantage of an equal right of appeal is that it would encourage the public to engage early on in the planning system, at the local development plan stage. However, there needs to be some element of certainty for people to get involved. As Ann Coleman from Greengairs said: “We did everything ‘by the book’ and yet we are going to be worse off than if we had never engaged with the development plan process. Meanwhile, the developer circumvented the process and their application, that was contrary to the plan, was approved”.
But one of the biggest reasons for creating an equal right of appeal is it would provide an alternative to going to court. This would address the unreasonable costs of the only action currently available to the public – judicial review. An appeal could provide a method whereby the quality and merits of the planning decision can be considered, whereas in a judicial review, currently, the courts will only look at the process which was used.
The public have a key role to play in shaping Scotland’s future and should be given the same chance to do so as developers. Giving communities a right to appeal will help provide a much-needed injection of public confidence in today’s planning system – while rectifying an unjustifiable inequality.
[Clare Symonds is the convener of Planning Democracy – one of Scottish Environment LINK’s 37 member organisations]
Petition can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01534
This article was first published by The Scotsman on 23rd September 2014
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