SNH Workshop on

Communities, Calendars and Biodiversity

Editorial

(filed 31 Oct 03)
© www.land-care.org.uk

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh (RBGE) recently ran a 2 day workshop (17/18 October 2003) entitled (1):

Sharing good practice: Communities, Calendars and Biodiversity
“exploring local biodiversity with communities”

The course was programmed (2) presumably to give persons who might be interested in attending an idea of what was in store regarding the implementation of SNH's (and therefore the Government's) objectives to promote the interest of communities in terms of access to the countryside and the promotion of biodiversity. But as ever with SNH activities (3) the programme appeared very one sided - very monofocal in outlook.

Nature Conservation (Scotland) Bill and Scottish Biodiversity Forum

This course was taking place at a time when the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Bill was being discussed (in the form of taking evidence) in the Environment and Rural Committee of the Scottish Parliament. As Kirsty Macleod of People 2 pointed out (4), among those scheduled to give evidence to the committee on 29th October was

Jo Lenthall, Scotland Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP) Project Officer for the Scottish Executive's Scottish Biodiversity Forum. Her e-mail address (confirmed 28/10/03) - joanna.lenthall@rspb.org.uk - would suggest she is employed by the RSPB.

Membership of the SCOTTISH BIODIVERSITY FORUM's Strategy Steering Group, according to the minutes of their meeting of 10th July, 2003 consists of :

SEERAD 7 members
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) 4 members

The following have 1 member each

Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT)
National Farmers Union of Scotland (NFUS)
British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC)
Tourism & Environment Forum
VisitScotland
Stirling University
Scottish & Southern Energy
Heritage Lottery Fund
Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh
British Trust for Conservation Volunteers
Black Environment Network

Total No = 20

So 1 out of the twenty members of the Scottish Biodiversity Forum's Strategy Steering Group are directly involved in and have economic responsibilities for land management. The other 19 are there to tell the land managers (as they like to call them) what to do.

Or in more diplomatic terms:

"this group is developing the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy which is a key component of the Nature Conservation bill - Part 1(2)".

Public Consultation On A Draft Strategy for Scotland's Biodiversity

This strategy was the subject of a recent public Consultation On A Draft Strategy for Scotland's Biodiversity (closed 6/6/03) which attracted only 108 responses. Apart from being poorly advertised, it was a lengthy document. Certainly those involved in managing and being responsible economically for land have been suffering from consultation-document-fatigue - such has been the prolific outpourings of poorly drafted papers from the bureaucrats of the various departments or agencies of the Scottish Executive.

Analysis of the SNH Course on Communities, Calendars and Biodiversity

While a trained ecologist taking a group of people for an enjoyable 2 days at the splendid Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh sounds like a highly delectable and praiseworthy activity, there surely must be worries as to what all this means in terms of the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Bill and the Land Reform (Scotland) Act, with particular reference to the SNH draft Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC).

After all the course was aimed at countryside rangers, volunteer community groups and education staff, community and biodiversity officers,(2).

In the event a SNH spokesperson informed Land-Care that:

A total of 20 people attended the workshop made up of

5 Countryside Rangers
4 Local Biodiversity Action Plan Officers
1 Community Biodiversity Officer
1 Community Woodland Officer
4 Community Education Officers (Voluntary Sector)
2 Community Arts/Project Officers
3 Volunteer workers.

Thus 17 of the 20 would have the course fee (and no doubt travelling and accommodation expenses) paid by the tax payer. In addition presumably 2 whole days of work were given up in relation to each of these 17 persons whom one presumes are employees of local government, central government or one f the agencies its funds.

So did this course reflect on what biodiversity and communities are supposed to be about?

In response to further enquiry to SNH the following information was provided.

"Gordon MacLellan: BSc (Hons) Zoology; PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate of Education) 3.5 yrs secondary school teaching; 9 years experience as Countryside Ranger; 8.5 freelance environmental art and education consultant and trainer.

"Community Calendars: In the context of this workshop, this means the regular celebration of projects or initiatives, eg the establishment of Local Nature Reserves, walk-ways, cycle routes. Workshop participants are encouraged to take the opportunity to become involved in regular locally organised events, eg galas, fetes and festivals, to raise awareness of local biodiversity through the enjoyment of outdoor recreational activity.

"Community Consultation and Participation: In the context of this workshop, community consultation is a means of gathering community views and values on an initiative or project. Participation means inviting the community to become involved in the development and delivery of a project or initiative, including the decision making process.

"Synopsis of Workshop: We will not be producing a synopsis of this training workshop (this was not a conference). We are however collecting feedback from the participants who attended, and from the responses we have had so far, the content and quality has been highly rated.

"Integration with how the land or place is managed: This would form part of the community participation process."

Land-Care raises the following concerns

The sole course tutor was an ecologist.
This academic approach reflects the make up of the Board of SNH, which is singularly lacking in land management training or experience as far as the manner in which most of the land in Scotland is actually managed - agriculture (5).

The fact that the tutor had some years’ experience as a countryside ranger carries little ice. Those of us who farm next urban settlements see little of countryside rangers and even less when it comes to conserving biodiversity in real terms on a farm. It is a bit rich coming from SNH when in their draft Scottish Outdoor Access Code they propose much that will damage local biodiversity - a point that has been repeatedly and emphatically stated by a large number of the 1386 responses to their Access Code consultation document (ref).

Community Calendars.
There is no mention here of the most urgent of requirements for countryside rangers - the need to educate about what is responsible behaviour by access takers. Such is the gap in the understanding of how the countryside works on the part of the access takers compared to that of the access providers that

"the regular celebration of projects or initiatives, eg the establishment of Local Nature Reserves, walk-ways, cycle routes. Workshop participants are encouraged to take the opportunity to become involved in regular locally organised events, eg galas, fetes and festivals, to raise awareness of local biodiversity through the enjoyment of outdoor recreational activity"

should at present take second place. Otherwise more harm will be done through damage to biodiversity than any benefit to “communities” in terms of their recreational activities.

No Synopsis.
So those of us who have the responsibility of actually caring for the land (and being financially responsible for its management) but who could not either afford the time (or indeed the cost) to attend such a meeting, will not learn anything from it.

No doubt it would be highly rated by the participants who were predominantly part of the army of environmental bureaucrats whose numbers are disproportionate to those who actually look after the land and its biodiversity and have done so for generations.

Integration with how the land or place is managed
So here we have it. The access providers who have management and economic responsibility for the land - and who in Scotland particularly have nurtured its biodiversity - are just part of the "community participation process".

It is not just the content of what is said that makes one feel sick, but the bureaucratic language used to express it.

References

1. Scottish Natural Heritage (2003). Sharing good practice: Communities, Calendars and Biodiversity. “Exploring local biodiversity with communities”.
Leaflet describing the course in pdf format (Click Here to View)

2. Scottish Natural Heritage (2003). Sharing good practice: Communities, Calendars and Biodiversity. “Exploring local biodiversity with communities”.
Programme for the course in pdf format (Click Here to View)

3. Irvine, James (2001). SNH Conference September 2000: Enjoyment and understanding of the natural heritage: Finding the new balance between rights and responsibilities. A review of the proceedings.
LandCare Scotland Vol 1: pp 25:32.
Reproduced here with permission
See Scottish Outdoor Access code HOMEPAGE, filed 22 Jan 03, www.land-care.org.uk (Click Here to View)

4. Macleod, Kirsty (2003). Nature Conservation Bill: Environment & Rural Development Committee 29th Oct.
See Environment HOMEPAGE, filed 29 Oct 03, www.land-care.org.uk (Click Here to View)

5. Editorial (2003). Who runs Scottish Natural Heritage?
See Social/Economic/Political HOMEPAGE, filed 17 Oct 03, www.land-care.org.uk (Click Here to View)

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