Land use strategy 2016-2021: second annual progress report

LUS2 policies

Regional Land Use Partnerships

Regional Land Use Partnerships (RLUPs) will facilitate regional decision-making to help achieve Scotland's climate and environment targets through land use change. In 2020, Scottish Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to support the emergence of RLUPs from 2021 and for Regional Land Use Frameworks (RLUFs) to be developed by 2023.

The Scottish Government asked the Scottish Land Commission (SLC) to provide advice on the establishment of RLUPs, which the SLC published in November 2020. To support the evaluation of the SLC's ambitious and high-level advice, the Scottish Government is currently testing approaches to governance, locally democratic engagement and implementation of Regional Land Use Partnerships with a set of pilots to inform decisions on wider roll-out.

This year, five volunteer pilot RLUPs have been launched. The geography of the five pilot regions corresponds with indicative Regional Spatial Strategy areas and are:

• Cairngorms National Park;
• Highland Council Region;
• Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park;
• North East Region (Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City Councils); and
• South of Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders Councils).

Modest funding has been provided to each pilot region to help with establishing their partnership, and a Coordination Network established for the pilot regions to share knowledge and methods of working/best practice as the project progresses.

Farmer-Led Groups

As part of the drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, over 2020/21 the last Government convened a series of Farmer-Led Groups to advise Scottish Ministers on sector-specific proposals to tackle climate change in agriculture. The five groups brought together people who have knowledge and expertise to propose practical workable solutions to ensure that agriculture contributes to Scotland's climate targets.

The groups were:

• Suckler Beef Climate Change Group
• Dairy Sector Climate Change Group
• Pig Sector Group
• Arable Climate Change Group
• Hill, Upland and Crofting Climate Change Group

The Groups' reports are available on the Scottish Government website Agriculture and the environment: Farmer-led climate change groups - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Together they set out a whole-industry approach to tackling climate change and restoring and enhancing biodiversity within food production and farming. The detailed proposals and ideas are now being considered by Scottish Ministers. Although beyond the scope of this report, in August 2021 the Scottish Government announced the establishment of the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB). The Board will be asked to contribute to Scottish Government's work to implement policy reform, incorporating the relevant recommendations of the farmer-led groups to cut emissions across agriculture, support the production of sustainable, high quality food, and design a new support system and approach.

Scottish Land Commission protocols & guidance

During 2020-21 the Scottish Land Commission (SLC) published seven protocols and ten pieces of guidance and toolkits setting out practical advice on how land owners, land managers and communities could work together to make better and fairer decisions about land use.

The new series of protocols provide clear expectations for how the Scottish Government's Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement (LRRS) can be realised through the way land is owned, used and managed. Throughout 2020-21 the SLC undertook a programme of activity promoting the protocols and good practice. This included webinars and workshops for landowners, land managers and communities, and the production of a range of case studies demonstrating good practice in land rights and responsibilities. The protocols have been downloaded over 900 times from the SLC's website to date and gained significant stakeholder support.

The SLC have also worked with 150 landowners and communities over the last year to embed land rights and responsibilities in practice, and have run a pilot self-assessment project with landowners to help them identify positive actions they could take towards achieving the expectations set out in the statement and the protocols. Further self-assessments, training and guidance will be delivered over the coming year to help more landowners and communities achieve a better balance between land rights and land responsibilities.

Tackling Vacant and Derelict Land

At the request of the Scottish Government, in 2018 the SLC and SEPA established the Vacant and Derelict Land Taskforce. This brought together senior representatives from around 30 businesses, public bodies and third sector organisations to consider ways to bring vacant and derelict land back into productive use and stem the flow of new vacant and derelict land (VDL) sites being created. The Task Force published its recommendations in October 2020, and

the Scottish Government published its response in December 2020. A new £50 million programme was announced to bring thousands of hectares of vacant and derelict land back into use over the next five years. This investment will help to meet climate change targets, promote the health, wellbeing and resilience of communities and support a fair, green recovery. It will also encourage future infrastructure investment into areas where it is need the most to help revitalise communities.