Making Scotlands Rural Environment More Sustainable

1
Overview
Making Scotlands Rural Environment More
Sustainable
Steve Albon
2
Aims and Thematic Objectives
Integrative research based around Scotlands
Natural Resources

• To help
• determine key factors influencing function and
  resilience and which link to sustainability of
  Scotlands quality brand.
• improve knowledge on hazard identification, the
  threat that various risks pose, and solutions to
  adapt and mitigate.
• develop appropriate balance of land use
  agriculture/forestry, environmental services,
  recreation, tourism, wildlife refuge.

3
Addressing Big Policy Issues
4
Sustainable Development (SD)

• Guiding Principles
• Living within environmental limits
• Ensuring a healthy and just society
• Achieving a sustainable economy
• Promoting good governance

5
Conceptual Frameworks for SD
Concept of resilience and adaptive cycles
(e.g. Gunderson and Holling, 2001)
Resilience
the capacity of a system to absorb perturbations
and remain in a functionally similar state
Multiple stable states a set of functionally
similar states for a system
6
Structure of Talk

• Background
• Responding to Climate Change
• Conservation of soil carbon
• Protecting Biodiversity
• Species Loss
• Habitat Loss
• Sustainable Rural Development
• Values and attitudes

• Our Approach
• Detecting change
• Understanding key drivers and mechanisms
• Stakeholder involvement
• Integrated Modelling
• Scenario analysis
• Supporting policy development
• Knowledge Exchange

7
1. Responding to Climate Change

• Mid-Summer Day Challenge
• Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable
  Growth
• John Swinney announced
• We will introduce a Scottish
  Climate Change Bill and consult on a mandatory
  long-term target to reduce our emissions by 80
  by 2050.
• equivalent to reductions of 3 each year.
• consult on proposals for targets based on average
  annual reductions over a 5 year period.

8
A Low Carbon Rural Economy?

• Adaptation and mitigation challenges
• Rural - Urban connections carbon (C) footprint
  of transport
• Land use change to reduce Green House Gas
  emissions
• Feasibility of biomass crop and renewable energy
• Practices to conserve C and/or sequester more C

9
Conservation of Soil Carbon

• Erosion (water and wind)
• Floods and landslides
• Decline soil organic matter

10
Loss of Soil Organic Matter

• Survey in England and Wales found significant
  rate of loss of soil organic matter (SOM)
  (Bellamy et al 2005)
• Scotland no contemporary estimates of SOM but
  more dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is being
  found in our lakes and rivers

11
Understanding Changes in DOC

• Increases seen in 80 of 160 sites in Scotland
• Trend consistent in space time - climate driver
  ToC
• But increase in rate varies within between
  catchments
• Geology, Soils, Land Use?

12
Need Multi-disciplinary Science
13
Latest Statistical Methods
14
Is Soil Carbon Changing?
National Soils Inventory Scotland

• Key points
• Data captured 1978-1987
• 5 km grid (2826 sites),
• analytical data at 10 km points (721 sites)
• Objective site selection - area estimates
• Scottish National Soils Archive

15
Monitoring Change in Soil C
20 km re-sampling, similar to EU, as before
aligned to OS Grid

• To detect change
• in key soil properties e.g carbon
• Compare sampling methods e.g NSRI, CEH
• Test suitability of new indicators e.g bulk
  density, porosity, measures of biodiversity

16
2. Protecting Biodiversity

• Scotlands Biodiversity Strategy
• Species and Habitat halting
  loss
• People
  raising awareness
• Landscapes Ecosystems enhancing
  biodiversity
• Integration and Coordination framework for
  inclusion in all decision making
• Knowledge best new
  and existing information for stakeholders

17
Reversing loss of biodiversity
18
Species solutions need research
19
Priority Species for Action
20
Habitat loss Landscape change
Expansion of forestry
Mammalian herbivores can be landscape engineers
Across Scotland area heather moor reduced by 25
since 1945
21
How Grazing Impact Varies
and which species?
Also cattle, rabbits, mountain hare, red grouse
22
Impact varies with species
And density
23
3. Sustainable Rural Development

• What sort of landscape do we want?
• Can we mitigate unwanted change?
• How can we adapt our demands to ensure the
  viability of rural livelihoods?

24
Diversification for SD

• Scientific American
• Stewardship payments
• Maintaining biodiversity
• Carbon conservation in particular soil C
• Renewable power
• Sustainable timber
• Water resources pollution and flood control
• Food security - premium

25
Human-Environment Interactions
What are key threats to resource do we
understand change processes?

• Provisioning services
• benefits from provision food, fibre or fuel
• Regulating services
• benefits from erosion control, water purification
• Cultural services
• benefits related to recreation

What are relevant issues that emerge from the
interaction?
What do people value about a resource and the
changes to it?
26
Values, Attitudes and Behaviour

• Emerging issues not based on expert knowledge
  alone, explicitly include lay stakeholders
  perceptions
• Lay stakeholders understanding contingent on
  translation process and perception, prior
  knowledge and experience

Beliefs/Values
Attitudes
Focus Groups

• General view on biodiversity management
• Specific attitude towards particular measures

• Not all ecosystem functions easily translatable
  to allow lay stakeholders to make meaningful
  value judgements!

27
Institutions and Property Rights
Feasibility of Exclusion
YES
NO
Private
Common Pool
YES

• Sheep farm
• Estate quarry

• Deer population

Rivalry in consumption
Club
Public
NO

• Crofters grazings

• Landscape

Interactions with Governance

• Economic market orientated
• Regulatory - fines
• Voluntary - cooperation

28
Stakeholder Involvement

• Who is currently involved?
• What interest do they represent?
• How is their involvement shaping the plan?
• How can conflicts of interest be resolved ?
• Innovative, interactive process see this
  afternoons workshop!

29
Summary Science Integral to SD
Analysing Change
Programme 3
30
Acknowledgements
Work Package Coordinators Helaina Black Iain
Brown Alison Hester Rupert Hough Simon
Langan Keith Matthews Robin Pakeman Alan
Renwick Andy Vinten
Speakers Workshop Facilitators Kirsty
Blackstock Colin Campbell Bob Ferrier Alison
Hester Wendy Kenyon Alan Renwick
Graphics Logistics John Brown Pat Carnegie Jane
Lund Lorraine Robertson
All the Poster authors/presenters Staff of Main
Research Providers
Programme 3 Advisory Board
Michael Usher, Maggie Gill and Ian Bainbridge