Solving the land-use jigsaw in Scotland: poetry, music, farmers and science
Art, science, farming and nature came together in a tent in a field in Scotland this summer, as NbSI’s Alison Smith took part in a unique event organised by SEDA Land, the Scottish Ecological Design Association.
SEDA’s session on ‘solving the land-use jigsaw’ took place at the second Groundswell Outreach sustainable farming festival on the Falkland Estate in Scotland (GO Falkland). This is a spin-off from the hugely successful Groundswell festival in England that attracts thousands of farmers, researchers and policymakers every year.
With farmland covering 70% of the UK, nature-based farming methods have a huge role to play in a sustainable future. Yet this is a sensitive and hotly debated topic, as land-use decisions involve complex tensions between competing goals such as nature recovery, food and timber production, recreation, water, soil, climate, local economies and cultures.
To address these issues, Gail Halvorsen at SEDA brought together an expert panel from science and practice for a thought-provoking debate. Like all SEDA’s events, the talks were interspersed with poetry, music and art (commissioned from local artists) that allowed space for reflection and inspiration. The aim was to work towards a social-ecological approach to landscape planning that could inform the delivery plan for Scotland’s third land-use strategy.
The session was preceded by half an hour of stunning photographs from Ted Leeming, an artist who is travelling around Scotland to capture our rapidly changing landscapes. Ted’s photos explore the cultural narratives around extraction and regeneration of resources, aiming to highlight how new thinking can deliver positive change.
SEDA’s session opened with an extraordinary poem from Chris Powici, who had the audience veering from laughter to tears as the mundane tale of a land-use forum manager evolved into a mythological encounter with a water-nymph. One line was particularly striking to those steeped in the endless balancing of land-use tensions:
‘And what about all the useless things? What about the noonday light through a mayfly’s wing? …. Who’ll speak up for them?’
Following this powerful opener, Alison Smith from NbSI gave an overview of the challenges around multifunctional land use. Although much of the debate presents a dichotomy between ‘land-sparing’ and ‘land-sharing’ approaches, Alison drew on recent work for the Scottish Government to show that these are not mutually exclusive. Combining sustainable productivity improvements with agro-ecological methods can increase benefits and reduce trade-offs between food or timber production and environmental goals. She showed how nature-based solution opportunity maps such as those developed by the Agile Initiative at the Oxford Martin School can be used to spark conversations and help stakeholders explore the pros and cons of alternative land-use options.
To show how this community-led land-use planning can work in practice, Graham Begg from the James Hutton Institute spoke about his experience with supporting local farmers to transition to agroecological methods such as planting hedgerows, restoring grasslands and woodlands. Another moving poem, Hillside and Hedge from Sophie Cooke, led to a rich panel debate featuring Marian Brucefrom Bioregioning Tayside, Grant Moir, CEO of the Cairngorms National Park, Denise Walton, chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network and Andrew Heald, a forestry consultant, ably chaired by Lucy Filby from South of Scotland Enterprise.
Before opening up to questions from the audience, we were treated to music inspired by the idea of birdsong as an indicator of ecosystem and community health, as a string trio led by Jessica Kerr played in harmony with recordings of birds singing in the local woods. It was a fitting end to an unforgettable event, in which the mix of art, science and practice encouraged a balanced and rational debate around an emotive topic, opening a path to further long-term engagement between participants.
