Scotland's landscapes and places to be protected by new alliance

The legendary Glencoe will be one of the areas protected by the new alliance.

Over 60 national organisations will gather this week to launch Scotland’s Landscape Alliance (SLA).

Led by the National Trust for Scotland and the Landscape Institute Scotland, the SLA aims to ensure that Scotland cares for, improves and benefits from its landscapes.

It represents a new era in Scottish landscape policy, providing the opportunity for input of a wide spectrum of interests including the design, enhancement, protection and promotion of all Scotland’s landscapes and places.

The SLA will launch at an event at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh on Thursday 25 April, with hopes it will encourage both public and political support for better care of Scotland.

The launch event will see organisations including universities, charities, government agencies and community groups asked to commit to the work of the SLA which will culminate in recommendations for regulatory and policy change in 2020.

Organisations such as the Institute of Civil Engineers Scotland, NHS Scotland, Scottish National Heritage, Mountaineering Scotland, Architecture and Design Scotland and Community Land Scotland will be in attendance at the launch.

The SLA is being led by Stuart Brooks, Head of Conservation and Policy for the National Trust for Scotland and Rachel Tennant, chair of the Landscape Institute Scotland and they both co-chair the Executive Committee of the SLA.

Mr Brooks said: “This is a significant step towards improving and safeguarding both our natural and built heritage and is one of the largest collections of organisations to come together on the topic of landscape since the publication of A National Landscape for Scotland in June 1962.

“The SLA does not aim to stop progress, our landscapes are constantly evolving, but to collectively agree what we want from our landscapes be they rural, peri-urban or urban.

“As a country we should work towards a planned approach that balances different needs but benefits everyone.

“We are all well aware of how important Scotland’s landscape is. It remains the top motivator for visitors to Scotland and is of high economic, social, environmental and emotional value.”

Rachel Tennant continued: “This is the start of a public conversation to collectively agree on how Scotland’s landscapes can be healthy, biodiverse, beautiful, economically useful and embedded in communities and what we then need to put in place to ensure we deliver these public benefits fit for the 21st century and beyond.

“We will commission research on attitudes towards existing policy and issues and establish a series of working groups who will inform recommendations for changing policy and practice, whether that’s directly or through parliamentary processes.”

www.nts.org.uk