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Natural Capital and Environmental Land Management - Sylvestris // Nature Finance - UK National Parks
This first very boring photo belies what was a very interesting evening! Last night I talked to to the Lochaline Climate Action Group (and a few intrepid other members of the community willing to brave yellow warning winds and rain to come out on a Tuesday night!) about the Aline Catchment Restoration Project at #Ardtornish. You can read more on the project here: https://lnkd.in/e3_yv8rN. The session was proof that local communities are very interested in what happens on the land around them, and why it’s happening. As is so usually the case, the conversation after the presentation was the best bit! Some interesting points that might apply more widely than Ardtornish were: 1. Rural communities care deeply about their landscapes, and know the land well. This project has been shaped for the better by the community’s feedback and input. 2. Everyone wants to support good decisions being made. Sometimes there’s tension between land managers and communities. That’s often because communities haven’t been given the chance to understand why decisions are being made or how they’re made. This project, like so many, includes trade offs (for particular species, or farming operations, for example) in an attempt make a net gain for the environment and ecology. Ardtornish has been able to explain those trade offs. 3. Deer management - which can be a contentious subject. Ardtornish is reducing its deer population and this along with other events has allowed us to explain why. With that explanation, we’ve had a lot of community support. 4. Can we make public the data that’s being collected to create the monitoring baseline and in the future, to report on the project’s success. 5. My favourite question from the night: ‘how can we help?’ - brilliant! Lots of ways, starting with citizen science in supporting the monitoring programme! The sector can mobilise the very valuable community resource. NatureScot Charlie Davis Sylvestris #naturerestoration #climateresilience #naturalcapital #landmanagement