Land Use Strategy

SA Fellows and those with relevant professional or personal interest are warmly invited to this event discussing Scotland’s Fourth Land Use Strategy (link below), noting the Scottish Government consultation closes on 5th October, and there will be civil servants present to respond with any necessary points of clarification.

It is anticipated the event will also allow people to outline their areas of interest in and views on the 2027-2032 ENRA research strategy (link below).  

The RSA records, once again, sincere thanks for greatly valued support and input from SEFARI and the Moredun Institute.  They have jointly enabled the event to happen.  

Additional speakers will be confirmed in the next day or two. Those confirmed already include:
– Professor Tom McNeilly, Director, Moredun Institute, on the role of livestock in land use
– Katherine Pollard, Policy & Practice Lead, Scottish Land Commission
– Maisili van Looy, University of Edinburgh Law School
– Jayne Ashley, Head of Natural Capital at SOSE re the NCIZ  

Delegates will require to have had lunch prior to arrival, noting the only refreshments being provided are those during the mid-afternoon networking break.  For reasons of Pentlands Science Park security, prior registration is essential, and the event is open only to those aged eighteen or over.  In case required on the day, please bring photo ID.    

Speaker biographies:  

Professor Tom McNeilly, BSc, BVM&S, PhD, MRCVS is Scientific Director of Moredun Research Institute, Chief Executive Officer of The Moredun Foundation and an Honorary Professor at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh. Tom is a qualified veterinary surgeon, and an immunologist and infectious disease biologist with expertise in ruminant vaccine development and disease resistance. He has developed vaccines to control parasitic, viral and bacterial infections in both cattle and sheep, including those which have progressed to field evaluation and to market. He is also CEO of the Moredun Foundation, a charity focused on improving livestock health and welfare through research and education. He currently chairs the SEFARI Directors Executive Committee.  

Jayne Ashley is Head of Natural Capital at South of Scotland Enterprise.  Jayne has been a sustainability practitioner for over 30 years, advising, facilitating, and mentoring communities and the private and public sectors, from local to European level.  She is creating and leading SOSE’s Natural Capital team, building on her knowledge and skills in community wealth building, creative and cultural industries, natural resources, tourism, and the creation of the Regional Land Use Partnership.  

Katherine  Pollard, Head of Policy, joined the Scottish Land Commission in 2018 from a Development Officer role at the Lothians & Fife Green Network Partnership, where  she developed a variety of projects and activities around priorities such as woodland management and creation and green infrastructure improvements in both urban and rural areas. Previously, she was Policy and Networks Adviser at the Royal Town Planning Institute.  Katherine has experience working with a wide range of organisations including local authorities, consultancies and community groups to coordinate projects and events.  
Marsaili Van Looy is a Research Fellow for the CO2RE Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub, with a focus on the UK regulatory regime for greenhouse gas removals.  It is about to complete an important report on nature-based climate solutions. The report has been built on extensive stakeholder engagement with government, civil society and industry including farming and forestry businesses.  

RSA Fellow Diarmaid Lawlor, Associate Director, Scottish Futures Trust.  Diarmaid is a designer, educator, and communicator who champions creative approaches to making better places.  He has over 20 years’ experience working with communities and across sectors to make well-informed decisions about place-based policy and investment challenges.   At SFT, Diarmaid leads on support to the Scottish Government Place Based Investment Programme, and works with public bodies across Scotland to shape place-based strategies for services, assets and investments.    

Dr Leo Peskett is an Assistant Professor at Heriot-Watt University. He is a catchment hydrologist with research interests in the links between land use and water resources. He has worked extensively on projects investigating the efficacy of natural flood management and on links between land use planning and catchment water resources management. He sits in the advisory group for the UK’s Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI) and has also recently been a UKRI-funded ‘Landscape Decisions Fellow’ focussed on RLUPs and natural capital frameworks. Prior to academia Leo worked for a decade as a researcher and policy advisor on climate change impacts on developing countries focussed on designing and evaluating new policies for reducing carbon emissions in the land sector in the tropics (particularly REDD+) with UNDP and other multilateral organisations.

RELEVANT LINKS:
SEFARI is found here: https://sefari.scot/
Moredun Institute here: https://moredun.org.uk/
LUS here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-fourth-land-use-strategy-consultation/
ENRA here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/consultation-2027-32-environment-natural-resources-agriculture-enra-research-strategy/
CO2RE here: CO2RE
Scottish Futures Trust is found here: https://www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk  

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