Seminar Three
28-29th October 2008 - Macaulay Aberdeen - Ecosystem services and sustainable communities
The third FRESH seminar, on the topic of ‘Ecosystem services and sustainable communities’ was hosted by The Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen and co-sponsored by the Global Land Project. The venue was Douneside House in Tarland and the seminar was held from 27th – 29th October. The purpose of the seminar was to understand how the importance of ecosystem goods and services can be embedded into current approaches to policy development and appraisal at the community level and what new kinds of methodological tools are needed to support future decision making in this context. The seminar also aimed to better understand the links between “ecosystem services” and “sustainable communities”.
Unlike the other FRESH seminars this seminar was built around a day long field trip during which participants had the opportunity to visit one of two communities in NE Scotland; Finzean or Tarland. Participants considered the ways in which these two local communities interact with ecosystem services and explored how they see the related opportunities and challenges.
A copy of the seminar programme can be found here.
The seminar programme started on the evening of October 27th with a welcome by Richard Aspinall followed by a presentation over-viewing the field trip by Richard Birnie (click here). Simon Langan then gave a presentation on the Dee and Tarland catchments to provide participants with some background to the area in which they were staying (click here).
Walking Field Trip
On October the 28th FRESH participants split into two groups. One group spent the day at Finzean the other in Tarland. Both were joined by members of the local community and local experts. The Finzean trip was hosted by Birse Community Trust (BCT) and the Tarland trip by The MacRobert Trust. The Finzean trip started at the (BCT) offices in Finzean Old School. They then visited the saw mill, the surrounding woodlands and Birse Kirk before coming back to the BCT offices to see the archive housed in Finzean Old School. BCT was set up to increase the ability of the three rural communities in Birse parish to tackle local issues on behalf of the community. BCT covers the whole of Birse Parish which has an area of 50 sq miles and 650 residents. Everyone on the electoral role in the parish is automatically a member and therefore has a stake in BCT. There are no permanent employees of BCT, as they are financed by grants and pay people for work on a grant by grant basis.
BCT activities are centered around woodland management and the preservation of natural and cultural heritage. BCT manage two wood mills providing a provisioning service. The woods are also managed for educational and recreational purposes providing cultural services. In addition to woodland management, BCT have also purchased and renovated a number of buildings of cultural importance to the parish.
The trip to Tarland started at Tomnaverie Stone circle, then proceeded through the surrounding farmlands and woodlands. The group visited the community wetland and waste water treatment wetland, the village of Tarland and the MacRobert Trust Offices. The MacRobert estate covers 7,000 acres. It consists of 5,000 arable acres divided into a number of let and partnership farms. The main activities on this land are livestock farming (beef and sheep), production of barley and production of grass for grazing. It also has 2,000 acres of woodland which are managed for recreation and timber production. The estate contributes to the Trust's income, the major part of which is derived from a perpetual endowment fund which has 10 Trustees four of whom are chosen by nomination.
Post-Field trip sessions
The two groups rejoined after the field trips and discussed the two areas, their communities and their different approaches, and how this affected their ability to capture ecosystem services. This was followed by an update session from the FRESH participants:
October 29th Field trip report back session
Each group gave a report back from the discussion sessions that followed the field trip on the previous day. Some key points are given below. A more detailed report is available from the Global Land Project nodal office website.
The Finzean group
- Activities are centered around shared heritage and management of common lands for provisioning services, cultural services and to a lesser extent regulating services.
- There is also a focus on capacity building and strengthening the community.
- BCT is funded in quite a unique way with most money coming from grants.
- The operational costs of BCT are low as it does not have any permanent employees.
- The issue of ownership is very important to how the trust operates and the level of influence it has over ecosystem service provision.
- The spatial scale at which BCT works appears to work well for this case for some cultural and provisioning services.
- The community appear to have shared values/preferences.
- It is unclear what would happen in the face of external threats [e.g. wind farms].
The Tarland group
- The estate is an important management unit.
- The management system works as a ‘feudal consultative partnership’.
- Leadership and inspirational individuals are important in motivating the community.
- The estate is a good scale at which to work but that the estate is affected by many polices which weren’t developed at this scale.
- The trust has had to deal with trade offs between regulatory, supporting and provisioning services.
- The landscape has an important role to play in cultural services e.g. inspiration for music etc.
- Community consultation and a planned participatory approach are important.
- The importance of moving beyond atomistic planning was discussed.
Presentation session
In the second part of the last workshop day two presentations were given:
Richard Aspinall talked about Sustainable communities and environments’ referring specifically to the case for Scotland. Click here
Jake Morris and Liz O’Brien from Forest Research gave a presentation on 'Britain's trees, woodlands and forests: linking ecosystem services with human well-being'. Click here
Roy Haines Young closed the workshop by saying that the last presentation ended with the issue valuing ecosystem services which is the topic for the next FRESH seminar in Birmingham.
