Scotland’s Landscape Alliance was formally launched on the 25th April 2019 by Co-Chairs of the Executive Committee, Rachel Tennant, Landscape Institute Scotland Chair and Stuart Brooks Head of Conservation and Policy for National Trust for Scotland.

Over 90 people and 65 organisations were represented and the launch was supported by Gillian Martin MSP and Convenor of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee. Chris Dalglish Director of the Inherit Institute and Chair of  the Landscape Research Group provided the key note speech on the implications of the European Landscape Convention with a particular focus on human rights and landscape.

The Landscape Institute Scotland welcome this continuation of the 5 aims of their vison statement Landscape for Scotland and a great opportunity for a range of organisations to collaborate to maximise the public benefits from Scotland’s landscape and places whether economic, social, cultural or environmental and to gain public and political support for better care of landscape and place, ensuring a collective vision fit for the 21c and beyond.

The Alliance aims to co-operate on landscape issues at a national and international level in line with the standards set by the European Landscape Convention of the Council of Europe.

The Next Steps

Delegates were asked to debate and sign up to topic focused, time limited Working Groups within the themes of:-

1: Landscape for healthy communities
2: Landscape and resilience to environmental challenges
3: Landscape, land use and economy

Each group are tasked with considering the overarching principle of landscape and placemaking and the underpinning process of stewardship and management of landscapes and place. From the outcomes of the Working Groups the SLA will publish a report outlining recommendations for regulatory, policy and other changes with the aim of enhancing public and environmental benefits from Scotland’s landscapes

Ongoing Work of the SLA Executive Committee

• Undertake public consultation/engagement during the process and carry out research with a focus on technical policy review and implementation of existing strategy
• Reconvene as the SLA membership before the end of the initial Working Group process to sense check some of the Groups work (November 2019 )
• Share progress and raise awareness of the SLA to broader audiences.