Championing the Local, part 3

Landscape-scale governance

Mon 21st September 4-6pm
Online – free admission

Landscape-Scale Governance is the third in the CHAMPIONING THE LOCAL series of SEDA Land Conversations.

This conversation will explore when it may be appropriate to scale up the model to regional or national level. Regional Land Use Partnerships (RLUPs) and bioregions are models bordered by natural geographic and landscape boundaries such as mountain ridges and watersheds. Both adopt a natural capital approach to understanding their regional landscapes. This addresses issues in a cross-sectoral way, using a systems approach, rather than simplifying the issues into sectoral silos. This is a challenging ambition, since it means grappling with the complexity, uncertainty and trade-offs inherent in large scale, closely coupled, socio-ecological systems, but policy and land use decisions (such as natural flood protection measures) are often best made at such a scale.

This Conversation will include inspirational models, using these as a springboard for a broader discussion of the subject, addressing obstacles along the way and how to overcome them.

Championing the Local 

An online series of SEDA Land Conversations (free to attend)

Mon 7th, 14th & 21st of September 2026

There is an emerging consensus about what needs to be done to revive rural Scotland. This series of events will look at how this might be achieved in practice.

The theme will be the role local value chains can play and how these might be facilitated. A place-based model enables rural communities to reap more of the benefits from the land around them including health and wellbeing benefits as well as environmental ones from shorter supply chains.

The passing of the Community Wealth Building Act by the Scottish Government is likely to fuel the growth of local value chains. This world-first piece of legislation commits the Scottish Government to “enable more local communities and people to own, have a stake in, access and benefit from the wealth [Scotland’s] economy generates”, making it mandatory for public bodies to prioritise the reinvestment of locally-generated wealth back into local communities. This event aims to ensure that councils, health boards and other public bodies are given the means to enact the bill.

Artists Contributions

Kirsty Law, singer and songwriter

Kirsty is a Scots folksinger, songmaker and storyteller. Having learnt directly from tradition bearers such as Sheila Stewart she now works in theatre, with artists, dancers, poets, storytellers, sound artists as she explores themes such as social commentary, landscape, hope and snow. 

Stuart Paterson, poet

Stuart is an award-winning poet and performer in his native Scots & English. An author of many collections, his poems have been commissioned by BBC2, BBC Radio 4, BBC Ulster, the Scottish Parliament and HMP Barlinnie. In 2017-18 he was BBC Scotland Poet in Residence. In 2020 he was voted ‘Scots Language Writer of the Year’.

Eleanor Pratt

Project lead, Verture

Eleanor is a natural collaborator and enjoys bringing organisations and people together to find solutions to environmental and social challenges. She loves working with a wide variety of people to help develop participative, creative processes which build trust, and find solutions which are owned by those involved in delivering them.

Rachel Skene

Consultant to NW2045 

Rachel’s portfolio spans freelance; third, private and public sector work, with a focus on socio-economic development with communities. With a first degree from The Glasgow School of Art she brings creative thinking to finding new and/or adaptive ways forward; in achieving collaboration; and in seeking solutions. Rachel has been on the boards of, and held senior development roles within, regional public sector bodies and social enterprises.  She returned to third- sector working, after 10 years in the public sector with HIE, in January 2022 when she joined Northwest2045 – a place-based collective of third, private and public sector people who collaborate to support delivery of the community generated NW2045 Vision VISION | NORTHWEST2045. NW2045 is contributing to the Scottish Governments ambition to see greater agency develop at a local level and is one of the Regional Land Use Partnership Pilots (RLUP) currently being tested in Scotland.

McNabb Laurie

Manager, D&G Woodlands

McNabb completed a BSc in Environmental Management at Lancaster University before spending 10 years working across the UK in the not-for-profit and corporate sectors. He grew up near Palnackie and in 2013 returned to the region, working initially at Loch Arthur Cafe and with the council, culminating in a role with the Galloway Glens Scheme between 2018-2023. This role involved a broad range of disciplines, from natural environment and heritage through to community engagement. In 2023 McNabb established Dumfries & Galloway Woodlands, leads the organisational development, and aspects of work including the adding of community and wider value to woodland creation schemes in the region. He is a founding trustee of Upper Urr Environment Trust, and secretary of the local community council

Clare Cooper

Director, Bioregioning Tayside

Clare is an independent creative producer, working across the fields of culture, nature restoration and tourism. She is co-founder and co-director of Tayside’s ‘museum without walls’. Previously a member of Alyth Community Council and a founding director of the Alyth Development Trust, she also served on the Local Action Group of the Rural Perth & Kinross LEADER programme from 2014-2021. She is a member of the Scottish Nature Finance Pioneers Group and co-leads The Alyth River-Keepers. Clare currently leads on Bioregioning Tayside’s fundraising, communications and operational management, including project managing three live projects – the River Ericht Catchment Restoration Initiative, Communities Monitoring Landscape Change and the Bioregional Financing Facility.

Henry Leveson-Gower

Founder and CEO, Promoting Economic Pluralism

Henry is an ecological economist and policy analyst with 30 years experience working in the public sector, locally, nationally and internationally. He has particular expertise in agricultural and environmental policy and regulation as well as green finance, local currencies and environmental markets. He has always sought to take a pluralist approach to economics since first coming into contact with standard economics in the early 90s following a degree in Philosophy. He set up Promoting Economic Pluralism and The Mint Magazine in 2016, where he is CEO and editor respectively. Henry has also been a Research Fellow at the Centre for Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus, is a Fellow of the RSA and a qualified chartered accountant.

TBC

SHEAP

To follow.

CHAIR: Lucy Filby

Head of Land & Forestry Transition, South of Scotland Enterprise

Lucy has over 20 yrs experience of building partnership projects to improve environmental outcomes in farming and wider food and drink value chains. Lucy worked at SEPA before joining SOSE in 2022. Lucy believes passionately that the health of our environment cannot be protected or improved without also tackling poverty and inequality. An aspiring regenerative practitioner, she loves working in the spaces between current reality and future vision. She is an advocate for business to be a force for good, growing prosperity and resilience together, within planetary limits.

Artwork by Flora Fraser – a multi-media landscape artist exploring shared experiences in Scotland’s wild places: Art by FAF