30th March 2007 - Dr Richard Birnie

Dr Richard Birnie, head of communication and outreach, Macaulay Institute

 'Replacing food with fun?' – Understanding land use change in rural Scotland.

As head of communication and outreach at Aberdeen’s Macaulay Institute, Dr Birnie discussed how the way society values the rural environment has changed over the last 50 years, moving from an 'agenda of food to an agenda of fun'.

His presentation identified:

•  A framework for understanding drivers of rural land use change
•  A review of historical and present changes
•  Where this could lead us in the future.

The transition from production of private goods to more public goods in the rural environment was another trend Dr Birnie reviewed in his presentation. This has manifested itself with a growing number of rural land use customers which, in turn, is leading to more debate - and sometimes conflict about what happens in rural areas. 

This movement in land use is closely related to major societal objectives and practices. It is also reflected in government policy, institutional frameworks and the behaviour and practices of land managers: private, community or non-governmental organisations.

Dr Birnie summarised what this interplay could mean for rural areas:

• Accessible areas with production advantages such as the Black Isle will witness small farms becoming uneconomic, resulting in more consolidation, with development pressure for land which will be used for both production and consumption (with the latter the likely winner).
• Areas with amenity advantage such as Speyside will focus on agri-environment production with a buoyant market for lifestyle farms / redundant farm buildings, a market for high conservation value land and the development of a public good amenity landscape. Again consumption wins.
• Areas with neither production/amenity advantage such as peripheral and island areas where there is a high reliance on primary industries and where ‘surplus’ agricultural land is used more extensively or even abandoned. Here there is a highly challenging future which is neither production nor consumption-oriented.   

 
The streaming audio file here allows you to sample key points from Richard's full presentation. His supporting slide presentation and questions and answers that followed are also available here in Adobe Reader pdf format.