REGIONAL LAND USE PARTNERSHIP
Regional Land Use Partnership (RLUP) Pilot project
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Background
RLUP pilot is being run by Scottish Government in 5 different areas of Scotland.
Regional Land Use Partnerships (RLUPs) are partnerships facilitating collaboration between local and national government, communities, land owners, land managers, and wider stakeholders. They will enable natural capital-led consideration of how to maximise the contribution that our land can make to addressing the twin climate and biodiversity crises. They will help to optimise land use in a fair and inclusive way – meeting local and national objectives and supporting Scotland’s just transition to net-zero.
Pilots have been established in:
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Cairngorms National Park - Highland Council area - Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park- North East Region (Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City Councils)- South of Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders Councils)
More information can be found at this link: Land use - Landscape and outdoor access - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
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Northwest2045 Pilot
The NW2045 RLUP is the Highland Council area pilot. This began earlier in 2022 and should run to December 2023. NW2045 is not a constituted group: the Scot Gov contract with The Highland Council is anchored through Assynt Development Trust and is delivered for ADT by Project Manager Rachel Skene. NorthWest2045 has a wide-ranging representation of community based and sector representatives who have collaborated to create a vision for the area. More details can be found here: VISION | NORTHWEST2045
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Currently, an initial Board oversees the RLUP contract delivery. This group is made up of Highland Council, NatureScot, The Scottish Land Commission, The Assynt Foundation, Assynt Development Trust and is led by Northwest 2045 Chair Frances Gunn. In addition, a working group was created to input to the NorthWest2045 Natural capital assessment, contracted to SLR Ltd. This working group involves input from a wide group of people and achieved a mix of representation. The assessment is now in the final stages.
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Next, in moving the RLUP beyond the initial phase, we seek to achieve greater place- based collaboration and representation. The knowledge and input of the people who work on / from the land is fundamental in achieving this. So far, input has included from estates- private and community owned, grazing clerks, tenant farmer, community trusts, and wider stakeholders including the crofting commission; NFU Sutherland rep; UHI and many others – this has really informed the work.
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