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Publication - Corporate report

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the Small Landholdings and Land Use Tenancy Proposals Environmental Report

Published
16 October 2023
From
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands, +3 more … Director of Energy and Climate Change, Director of Environment and Forestry, Director-General Net Zero
Directorate
Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate, +2 more … Energy and Climate Change Directorate, Environment and Forestry Directorate
Topic
Environment and climate change, Farming and rural
ISBN
9781835213308

SEA is a systematic process for evaluating the environmental consequences of proposed plans, strategies, or programmes. This Report accompanies the Small Landholding and Land Use Tenancy proposals, within the Land Reform Bill.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Footnotes

1. Scottish Government (February 2023) SEA Screening Report on the Land Reform Bill for Scotland

2. Scottish Government (February 2023) Small Landholdings and Land Use Tenancy proposals: Agricultural Bill SEA Scoping Report

3. Scottish Government (March 2022): ‘Delivering our Vision for Scottish Agriculture’, [online] available to access via this link

4. Scottish Government (June 2023): ‘Agricultural Reform Route Map (second edition)’, [online] available to access via this link

5. Scottish Government (September 2023): ‘Strategic Environmental Assessment of Agricultural Tenancies, Small Landholdings and Land Use Tenancy Proposals’

6. Scottish Government (February 2023): ‘SEA Screening Report on the Land Reform Bill for Scotland’

7. Scottish Government (February 2023): ‘SEA Screening Report on the Land Reform Bill for Scotland’

8. Scottish Government (February 2023): ‘Small Landholdings and Land Use Tenancy proposals: Agricultural Bill SEA Scoping Report’

9. Scottish Government (June 2023): ‘Small Landholdings and Land Use Tenancy: Agricultural Bill SEA Scoping Report’

10. The Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 highlights that the Environmental Report should present information on the likely significant effects on the environment, including on issues such as biodiversity; population; human health; fauna; flora; soil; water; air; climatic factors; material assets; cultural heritage, including architectural and archaeological heritage; landscape; and the inter-relationship between these issues.

11. Ecosystem Services are the variety of goods and services upon which people depend, and that arise from ecosystems. Ecosystem Services are commonly categorised into Provisioning (e.g. water, food production), Regulating (e.g. the

control of climate and diseases), Cultural (e.g. aesthetic values, recreational opportunities), and the underpinning Supporting services (e.g. crop pollination).

12. Scottish Government (September 2023) Strategic Environmental Assessment of Agricultural Tenancies, Small Landholdings and Land Use Tenancy Proposals

13. The Scottish Government and AECOM subsequently agreed to include two additional SEA topics in the Environmental Report – soil and water quality (a combination of the soil and water SEA topics outlined in the Scoping Report) and landscape and historic environment (a combination of the landscape and cultural heritage SEA topics outlined in the Scoping Report).

14. Met Office (2018): ‘UKCP18 Science Overview Report’, [online] available to access via this link

15. Met Office (2018): ‘UKCP18 Climate Change Over Land’, [online] available to access via this link

16. Scottish Government (2019): ‘Scottish greenhouse gas emissions 2017’, [online] available to access via this link

17. Scottish Government (2020): ‘Update to the Climate Change Plan 2018-2032: Securing a Green Recovery on a Path to Net Zero’, [online] available to access via this link

18. Note the values used here are based on updated global warming potentials, as presented in IPCC 5th Assessment Report. Previous inventory data was calculated based on the IPCC 4th Assessment Report leading to minor discrepancies when presenting emissions in units of CO2e.

19. IPBES (2019): ‘Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services’, [online] available to access via this link

20. NatureScot (2019): ‘State of Nature Scotland Report 2019’, [online] available to access via this link

21. Ibid.

22. Firbank et al. (2007): ‘Assessing the impacts of agricultural intensification on biodiversity: a British perspective’, [online] available to access via this link

23. Robinson and Sutherland (2002): ‘Post-war changes in arable farming and biodiversity in Great Britain’, [online] available to access via this link

24. Boatman et al. (2007): ‘Impacts of agricultural change on farmland biodiversity in the UK’, [online] available to access via this link

25. Ibid.

26. Hanley et al. (2008): ‘Economic determinants of biodiversity change over a 400-year period in the Scottish uplands’, [online] available to access via this link

27. Withers et al. (2014): ‘Agriculture and eutrophication: Where do we go from here?’, [online] available to access via this link

28. Burns et al. (2016): ‘Agricultural management and climatic change are the major drivers of biodiversity change in the UK’, [online] available to access via this link

Contact

Email: TenantFarmingQueries@gov.scot

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