Championing the Local Part 3

Monday, 21st September 2026

SEDA LAND Green Drinks

Better Outdoors

Free admission

In person 5-8pm, online 5:30-7:30pm

Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh

Light refreshments available

Forest schools and outdoor nurseries are becoming more prevalent in Scotland and their benefits are well-known, so why are they not being systematically rolled out or integrated into the Scottish education system?  

Join us for a conversation covering the benefits of outdoor learning, both at primary and secondary level, and how local authorities and the Scottish government can be persuaded to recognise the part it could play in a more enlightened curriculum. 

Outdoor learning is not limited to rural schools. We will explain how, with a little imagination, it can be done in a tarmacked playground.

This will be an informal discussion with leading UK educationalists and practitioners – including nursery school managers and rangers.

ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION

Dr Alexia Barrable, senior lecturer in education, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.

Alexia is a lecturer in the Psychology, Sociology, and Education Division at Queen Margaret University . Her research focuses on human-nature interactions, particularly in educational settings, exploring how different experiences and pedagogical approaches can promote or hinder nature connection in children. She is also interested in the promotion of mental health and well-being across the lifespan through interactions with the natural world. Beyond academia, Alexia has delivered many talks for lay audiences, including a TEDx presentation. Her dedication to bridging research and practice underscores her commitment to fostering meaningful connections between individuals and the natural environment. Outdoor Learning Hub.

Davina Bowers, head, the Forest Nursery and Junior School at Merchiston Castle School

A qualified Forest School leader, Davina is a strong advocate for the Forest principles - delivering outstanding teaching, supporting holistic development and encouraging child-centred learning to nurture the very best out of young people.

Louise Licznerski, founder, Little Bugs Nursery, Fife

Louise is a passionate advocate for outdoor learning following a career in retail management. Her transition into education and her experiences teaching in primary and early years settings provide her with valuable insights into the benefits of outdoor learning, particularly for children with additional needs. She founded Little Bugs in 2021, an outdoor nursery that also provides after-school care and flexi school sessions. Louise also encourages new practitioners to incorporate nature-based activities into their teaching through training events and initiatives like Practitioner Fest.

Carol Murdoch, founder, Love Outdoor Learning

Carol is the founder of Love Outdoor Learning, supporting schools across the UK to embed meaningful, curriculum-linked outdoor learning. A former primary teacher and university lecturer, she specialises in practical, low-prep approaches that build meta-skills, resilience and inclusion. Carol is passionate about making outdoor learning accessible in every setting, from woodland to tarmac playground.

Jo Cooke, ranger, Midlothian Council

Jo is Senior Countryside Ranger at Midlothian Council, based at Vogrie Country Park. The Ranger Service manage countryside sites across the county, including, Vogrie Country Park, Roslin Glen Country Park, Gore Glen Woodland Park, Springfield Mill Nature Reserve, Straiton Pond Local Nature Reserve and two disused railway lines from Penicuik to Dalkeith and Loanhead to Roslin. They manage them for the benefit of people and nature.

Gail Halvorsen, Halvorsen Architects & chair SEDA Land

After working for Michael Hopkins and Partners in London Gail established Halvorsen Architects in 1994. She moved to Edinburgh in 1999, where she specialises in ecological design for residential and nursery school buildings. Gail was chair of ECAN (Edinburgh Chartered Architects Network) from 2001-2 and on the board of Gorebridge Community Development Trust for 10 years, being chair from 2014-16, where she project managed the £2.5m community centre, Gorebridge Beacon. She was a Civic Trust Award assessor 1997–2011. Gail is a director of the SEDA and organised the A New Vision for Land Use in Scotland: Six Conversations in Spring 2021 after which she founded SEDA Land to look at issues facing rural Scotland in a cross-sectoral way.

Rob Heasman, Beeslack High School, Midlothian

Rob is a teacher at Beeslack Annex.  Established in 1921 the Annex is part of Beeslack Community High School in Midlothian that provides (mostly) full-time placements for about 24 secondary pupils from across Midlothian.  The pupils have a range of additional support needs: Social, Emotional and Complex Needs.  Rob uses the outdoor leaning as a integral part of the timetable.

Championing the Local, part 1

Shortening supply chains TO transform communities

Monday, 7th September, 4-6pm
Online – free admission

Shortening Supply Chains to Transform Communities is the first in the CHAMPIONING THE LOCAL series of SEDA Land Conversations.

This Conversation is aimed at helping community groups realise their ambitions 

We will explore alternative business models, including co-operatives, social enterprises and employee-owned businesses, and how they can make LVC’s possible, as well as the best scale at which such issues can be addressed – local, regional or national. 

At present, Scotland has plenty of micro examples of Inclusive and Democratic Business Models (IDBMs). We will look at ways of scaling these up, and rolling them out across the country, in areas such as food, renewable energy and retrofit.

One aim is to highlight the interconnectedness of all these issues, and how thinking about them together brings wider benefits, with different sectors learning from each other. 

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

Moteh Parrott, Alternative-indie-folk singer-songwriter

Born in Cameroon to parents working in rainforest conservation, and given the local name ‘Mnkongmoteh’, Moteh is a Scottish musician who has been likened to “a Highland wilderness with all the sweeping colour and spirit which that encompasses”. He was shortlisted for BBC Radio Scotland’s Singer-Songwriter of the Year 2019, and released his debut album The Stones are Merely Sleeping in 2024.

Lisa MacDonald, poet and short story writer

Lisa lives in Achiltibuie in the NW Highlands. She is a community activist, a primary school teacher and a lecturer at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. Her work has been widely published including her collection Mnathan na Còigich | The Women of Coigach. Lisa won the Wigtown Gaelic Poetry Prize 2014. She is fascinated by context – the way choices and circumstances ripple across communities, relationships and time in unforeseen ways .

Adam Forrest

Co-op development manager at Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS)

Adam works at the interface of agriculture, sustainable food systems, and rural development. His background spans roles in farm enterprise management, organic sector development, co-operative governance, and commercial strategy in the food sector. He is particularly interested in building collaborative, farmer-led approaches to sustainable agriculture that combine food production, nature restoration and community benefit. In 2025 he joined SAOS as Co-op Development Manager, to support the growth and resilience of Scottish agricultural cooperatives.  Adam previously served as Scotland Manager for the Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN), where he led advocacy, farmer engagement, and policy-influence efforts working with producers, eNGO partners, and government to embed nature-friendly farming in national agricultural policy. Prior to NFFN at Scotland Food & Drink, Adam coordinated the development of Scotland’s National Organic Action Plan alongside sectoral stakeholders and prior to that he was the enterprise manager at Cyrenians Farm, a market garden and rural skills centre for young people from backgrounds of homelessness.

Neil McInroy

Global lead for Community Wealth Building, The Democracy Collaborative

At The Democracy Collaborative Neil advances systemic economic reform and inclusive ownership strategies across the United States and internationally. With over 30 years of experience in progressive economic and public policy, Neil is widely recognized as a leading international figure in democratic economic development. Neil has been instrumental in shaping Community Wealth Building as both a practical framework and a strategic theory of change. His work is grounded in key contextual ideas — such as addressing structural inequality, democratizing wealth, and embedding resilience into local economies. He has developed the CWB Guide and Training Program, which provides a structured pathway for action, framed by his original development of the Five Pillars of CWB. Until 2021, Neil served for 20 years as CEO of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), the U.K.’s national organization for progressive local economies. He was also a Community Wealth Building Adviser to the Scottish Government until 2023, where he embedded CWB principles into national economic policy and chaired strategic reviews on Inclusive and Democratic Business Models and the Shetland Islands Energy Transition Taskforce. He is currently the chair of the economic development association of Scotland (EDSA).

Abi Mordin

Co-director, Propagate & coordinator, Dumfries and Galloway Sustainable Food Partnership

Abi is a co-director of Propagate - a Scottish collective working on local, sustainable and community food projects. She has been working across community and local food projects for over 20 years, and is passionate about food sovereignty, resilience and fair food systems. An experienced grower, facilitator, practitioner and researcher , with an MSc in Farming and Food Security, Abi's inclusive and collaborative attitude encourages everyone to be involved in thinking about and co-creating sustainable food and farming systems. Abi lives in Dumfries and Galloway where she runs a small market garden and a small herd of Shetland cattle. Find out more at www.propagate.org.uk

Zoë Holliday

CEO, Community Energy Scotland (CES)

Since joining CES in 2022 Zoë has become a leading voice for the community energy sector in Scotland and the UK and uses insights from more than 450 community energy members on the ground to unlock barriers and campaign for change. Zoë was instrumental in setting up the Scottish Community Coalition on Energy with DTAS and Community Land Scotland, and has co-authored several publications that have had significant traction. Prior to her role at CES, Zoë was Head of Strategic Development for Caritas Sofia in Bulgaria, which led to posts leading the Refugee Survival Trust and Humans in the Loop Foundation. She has also spent time working for the Energy Saving Trust, the Center for the Study of Democracy and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations.

Prof. Douglas MacMillan

Emeritus Professor of Biodiversity and Land Economics

Douglas is an Emeritus Professor of Biodiversity and Land Economics. He specialises ineconomics related to the sustainability of land use systems, heritage and livelihoods and the conservation of biodiversity. His current focus is on natural and cultural heritage management in the Scottish Highlands and the contribution heritage can make to sustainable rural development, using data and verifiable research methods from the fields of human ecology, economics and sociology to explore issues of sustainability in these fields. He has published over 150 academic papers on topics ranging from Land Reform in Scotland to the international wildlife trade. Douglas’s geographical focus has returned to Scotland, after more than a decade working in international conservation in amazing biodiverse rich countries such as India, China, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Dr Emilia Pietka-Nykaza

Senior lecturer, University of the West of Scotland

Emilia brings a rich academic background in sociology, refugee studies, and political science to her research on integration and settlement processes. Her focus extends to exploring the impact of diverse population mobility patterns on the sustainability of rural communities, particularly examining the connections of young people to rural areas and fostering community relations among residents with varied migration histories. Emilia is an academic migrant herself and is keen to support sustainable rural communities. Emilia is currently a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy and Programme Leader for Social Sciences at the University of West of Scotland. She has more than 15 years of research experiences in the broad field of migration studies from a multidisciplinary and policy-focused perspective. Prior joining UWS, Emilia was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Population Change (CPC) at the University of Southampton. Emilia holds PhD in Education, MPhil in Sociology and MSc in Refugee and Migration Studies from University of Strahclyde. She is a director at Scottish Rural Action.

Chair: TBC

TBC

TBC

Championing the Local, part 2

Councils need to buy better

Monday, 14th September, 4-6pm
Online – free admission

Councils Need to Buy Better is the second in the CHAMPIONING THE LOCAL series of SEDA Land Conversations.

This Conversation will highlight the role that local authorities of the critical role they can play in enhancing local economies.

The Scottish Government is committed to integrating social value and wellbeing into public procurement through not only the Procurement Reform (Scotland) legislation, but also the Scottish National Performance Framework strategy.

In April 2023 the Scottish Government published the first Public Procurement Strategy for Scotland. Local authority procurement – on the long-term contractual basis – can give communities the much needed confidence to invest and kickstart new enterprises.

This could be particularly transformative for Scotland's rural and remote communities which often face unique challenges, including economic fragility, limited employment opportunities, and infrastructural deficits. Local procurement fosters local employment, enhancing skills, and improving local infrastructure. This event aims to ensure that councils, health boards and other public bodies are given the means to enact the bill.

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

Jenny Sturgeon, composer, singer-songwriter, and sound artist
Jenny’s music combines field recordings with sonic and lyrical imagery bound together by threads of nature, folklore and the connection people have with the landscape. Jenny has released two acclaimed albums. 'The Living Mountain' won Best Acoustic at the 2020 Scottish Alternative Music Awards.  ​Jenny's most recent work paths.made.walking is a series of sound recordings which chart her journey walking the Scottish National Trail. Jenny’s music has been played widely on radio stations.

Chris Powici, poet, English and creative writing tutor

Chris’s poetry focuses on human and natural environments and how they overlap. He edited the literary magazine Northwords Now for seven years. He lives in Dunblane, and teaches at The Open University, the University of Stirling, and in the community. His collection, This Weight of Light, was published in 2015.

Adam Forrest

Co-op development manager at Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS)

Adam works at the interface of agriculture, sustainable food systems, and rural development. His background spans roles in farm enterprise management, organic sector development, co-operative governance, and commercial strategy in the food sector. He is particularly interested in building collaborative, farmer-led approaches to sustainable agriculture that combine food production, nature restoration and community benefit. In 2025 he joined SAOS as Co-op Development Manager, to support the growth and resilience of Scottish agricultural cooperatives.  Adam previously served as Scotland Manager for the Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN), where he led advocacy, farmer engagement, and policy-influence efforts working with producers, eNGO partners, and government to embed nature-friendly farming in national agricultural policy. Prior to NFFN at Scotland Food & Drink, Adam coordinated the development of Scotland’s National Organic Action Plan alongside sectoral stakeholders and prior to that he was the enterprise manager at Cyrenians Farm, a market garden and rural skills centre for young people from backgrounds of homelessness.

Sarah Gowanlock

Partnerships Manager, Soil Association Scotland

Sarah is an experienced project manager working in partnership with public sector, third sector, academic institutions and community organisations toward a sustainable future where we can all access good food. I build partnerships to develop and facilitate innovative projects to embed healthy and sustainable diets. Roll up the soil Association, Sarah is also partnerships and programsme manager for Food for Life Scotland.

Sue Guy

Co-founder, Reuse Scotland

Sue started out working with communities developing Local Plans and action for improving livelihoods and wellbeing and went on to co-found Reuse Scotland SCIO. Along the way, Sue advised governments, local authorities, schools, and third-sector organisations (nationally/ internationally) always with the same focus: enabling people to shape the solutions that matter to them.

Iain MacPherson

director, Reorient Places

Iain specialises in reshaping the narrative of places and spaces through innovative thinking. Supporting and co-designing with stakeholders, communities, local authorities, and organisations, he help navigate creatively towards achieving impactful and sustainable outcomes. Awards include: Your Kirky Town Centre Action Plan (2020), Warrington Central 6 Masterplan (2021) and most recently Fraserburgh Beach Masterplan won the RTPI Scotland Award in the Best Plan category (2024). Iain was also a finalist for the 2021 Young Planner of the Year award.

Neil McInroy

Global lead for Community Wealth Building, The Democracy Collaborative

At The Democracy Collaborative Neil advances systemic economic reform and inclusive ownership strategies across the United States and internationally. With over 30 years of experience in progressive economic and public policy, Neil is widely recognized as a leading international figure in democratic economic development. Neil has been instrumental in shaping Community Wealth Building as both a practical framework and a strategic theory of change. His work is grounded in key contextual ideas — such as addressing structural inequality, democratizing wealth, and embedding resilience into local economies. He has developed the CWB Guide and Training Program, which provides a structured pathway for action, framed by his original development of the Five Pillars of CWB. Until 2021, Neil served for 20 years as CEO of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), the U.K.’s national organization for progressive local economies. He was also a Community Wealth Building Adviser to the Scottish Government until 2023, where he embedded CWB principles into national economic policy and chaired strategic reviews on Inclusive and Democratic Business Models and the Shetland Islands Energy Transition Taskforce. He is currently the chair of the economic development association of Scotland (EDSA).

Louise Kirk, TBC

Head of Service (Economic Development Growth & Regeneration), Noth Ayrshire Council

To follow. 

TBC

TBC

To follow. 

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