Land use strategy must be prioritised says SLE

The term ‘green lairds’ has been capturing the headlines in recent times as individuals and organisations buy land to highlight their environmental credentials – and possibly also to cash in on tax benefits, the carbon trading market and future support measures.

Stephen Young, Scottish Land and Estates head of policy.

But yesterday the rural business organisation, Scottish Land and Estates, said that the term oversimplified the significant financial and regulatory challenges faced by land managers who were making real efforts to tackle climate change.

Speaking ahead of a debate in the Scottish Parliament on the issue, the organisation’s head of policy, Stephen Young, said it was never more vital that land use strategy was prioritised ahead of long-running deliberations over ownership if net zero targets were ever to achieved.

Stating that land ownership was not a golden ticket to access funding and favourable tax incentives he said that private, public, community and NGO landowners already played their part in combating climate change through policies such as increased woodland planting and restoration of our peatlands. He said that it was unfortunate that the argument kept coming back to land reform and arguments over ownership and that while public engagement was important people should be judged on their actions rather than public perceptions.

Young said: “An integrated approach to land management so we can deliver on a landscape scale is the best hope we have for making the necessary changes we need to halt climate change.”