Sustainable upland estate management in Scotland

The Sustainable Estates for the 21st Century project was funded by the Henry Angest Foundation.


Further work on the project has also been supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, Scottish Government and Scottish Land and Estates:

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Projects

The detailed results from all of the projects can be found in 'Lairds, Land and Sustainability: Scottish perspectives on upland management' (Edinburgh University Press, 2013).

Project 1:  The role of private landownership in facilitating sustainable rural communities in upland Scotland

Annie McKee (now based at the James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen)

Private sporting estates continue to dominate Scotland’s uplands, and their owners have greatly influenced those living and working on their land.  Contemporary estate management, however, has received little attention in academic literature. Furthermore, there has been little consideration of the impact of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 on landowner-community dynamics and minimal discourse on the contemporary ‘estate community’. In an attempt to reverse these knowledge gaps and contribute to Scottish sustainability policy, this project studied in-depth case studies of six ‘good practice’, upland, privately-owned Scottish estates. Research questions were answered using household questionnaires, interviews with key actors in the local communities and estate staff, as well as participant observation, recorded in a case study diary. On each estate, the researcher lived and worked with the estate community for 2-3 weeks, volunteering in local pubs, village shops, cafés, community centres, community groups and fundraising events, as well as doing various jobs with estate maintenance staff, gamekeepers, gardeners and housekeepers. This approach generated a unique and rich understanding of the threats and opportunities facing rural communities and private landowners in upland Scotland, as well as the key role that private landowners play in the sustainability of these communities.

 This research forms the basis for the booklet entitled: ‘Working Together for Sustainable Estate Communities’.

Latest publications

Glass, J.H., McKee, A. and Mc Morran, R. (2012).  Working Together for Sustainable Estate Communities: exploring the potential of collaborative initiatives between privately-owned estates, communities and other partners.  Centre for Mountain Studies, Perth College, University of the Highlands and Islands.

Warren, C.R. and McKee, A.J. (2011). The Scottish Revolution? Evaluating the impacts of post-devolution land reform. Scottish Geographical Journal, 127 (1), 17-39.

Project 2:  Landowner motivation and perceptions of sustainability; exploring visions for the future of the Scottish uplands

Pippa Wagstaff

Private landowners own a large proportion of Scottish land, and have the capacity to have a strong influence on land-use changes. Traditional assumptions of dependency on agriculture may be inappropriate, particularly in upland Scotland, where landowners are often not primarily engaged in farming.  Consequently, understanding what motivates them is essential for the design of effective policy.

This project investigated the relationship between landowners’ motivations, their perceptions of ‘sustainability’ and the extent to which the owner defines the future sustainability of the Scottish upland estate. Traditional structured survey and interview methodology were combined with Q methodology to provide a complementary mix of qualitative and quantitative research.

Economic motives were found to take priority, although they could not be entirely isolated from the environmental and social goals.  Time and money were found to have a significant influence on the relative importance of these three aspects for sustainable estate management. Once economic motivations were satisfied, stronger environmental motivation could develop.  Social motivation was engendered through long-term involvement with the community, and hence was strongest on inherited estates.  However, despite the strength of economic motivation, landowners try to balance multiple objectives including environmental and social issues. Retaining resident and inherited landowners was important in building resilient communities. Threats to the long-term sustainability of landowners are therefore threats to the sustainability of rural communities.

The research suggests that government policy for Scottish upland estates needs to achieve a better alignment of landowner and public goals of ‘sustainability’ and that it should influence landowners’ decision-making processes through education and assistance, incentive and ultimately light regulatory control.  The CAP still incentivises many economically-motivated landowners to provide public goods. Their contributions to the environmental aspects of sustainability should be appreciated through schemes that recognise the benefits of managing upland estates for all stakeholders.

Project 3:  A study of the experiences of internal and external actors in community-owned estate initiatives in Scotland

Rob Mc Morran

Recent decades have witnessed the emergence of local communities as landowners in their own right in Scotland, particularly in some of the more remote corners of the Highlands. These community ‘buyouts’ of rural estates have been facilitated by a wide array of stakeholders and partners and are often viewed as positive from a sustainable rural development perspective. However, relatively little in-depth evaluation of the sustainability of these emerging estates has been conducted.

Case studies were carried out on four community estates located on the west coast of Scotland. The estates were relatively variable in terms of the size of the estate, the year the buyout occurred, the population on the estate and the relative importance of crofting as an element of estate activity. The approach involved interviewing a broad range of community members and representatives, estate staff and board members, local business people and other stakeholders. Approximately 20 people were interviewed for around an hour on each site, with some reviewing of key documents also being conducted. The initial findings are also being reviewed by smaller participant panels from each estate.

The results showed a wide range of benefits directly linked with the estate buyouts, with the three key overarching themes of benefits being: 1) community stabilisation 2) sustainable asset management and economic development and; 3) collaboration, partnership and networking. 

Latest publications

Glass, J.H., McKee, A. and Mc Morran, R. (2012).  Working Together for Sustainable Estate Communities: exploring the potential of collaborative initiatives between privately-owned estates, communities and other partners.  Centre for Mountain Studies, Perth College, University of the Highlands and Islands.

Project 4: The power of the research process: co-producing a sustainability assessment toolkit for upland estate management in Scotland

Jayne Glass

The wide range of ownership types, management objectives and preferences associated with estate management in Scotland make the concept of ‘sustainability’ difficult to apply in practice.  This project developed a toolkit to tackle this complexity and measure how an estate contributes to wider sustainability goals.

Developed with an experienced group of working estate professionals from a range of ownership management types, as well as members of representative bodies, academics and policy-makers with an interest in estate management, the toolkit was developed over four stages.  The process was anonymous and the researcher facilitated the development of each stage, collating the ideas and opinions of the participants and feeding them back to the group. 

The toolkit is organized around five ‘principles of sustainable estate management’, which are linked to 12 ‘sustainability actions’.  These ‘actions’ are the goals that the group felt each estate should be working towards, in order to pursue a more sustainable approach.

Latest publications

Glass, J.H., Scott, A.S. and Price, M.F. (2012).  Getting active at the interface: how can sustainability researchers stimulate social learning? In: Wals, A.E.J. and Corcoran, P.B. (eds), Learning for Sustainability in times of accelerating change. Wagenigen Press.

Glass, J.H., Scott, A.J. and Price, M.F. (2013). The power of the process: Co-producing a sustainability assessment toolkit for upland estate management in Scotland. Land Use Policy, 30(1), 254-265. Please contact Jayne if you would like a copy for your personal use (jayne.glass@perth.uhi.ac.uk).

Glass, J.H., McKee, A. and Mc Morran, R. (2012).  Working Together for Sustainable Estate Communities: exploring the potential of collaborative initiatives between privately-owned estates, communities and other partners.  Centre for Mountain Studies, Perth College, University of the Highlands and Islands.

Glass, J.H. (2011).  The power of the research process: co-producing a sustainability assessment toolkit for upland estate management in Scotland.  PhD thesis, University of the Highlands and Islands (awarded by University of Aberdeen).  Please contact Jayne if you would like a copy (jayne.glass@perth.uhi.ac.uk).

Reed M.S., Bonn A., Slee W., Beharry-Borg N., Birch J., Brown I., Burt T.P., Chapman D., Chapman P.J., Clay G., Cornell S.J., Fraser E.D.G., Glass J.H., Holden J., Hodgson J.A., Hubacek K., Irvine B., Jin N., Kirkby M.J., Kunin W.E., Moore O., Moseley D., Prell C., Price M.F., Quinn C., Redpath S., Reid C., Stagl S., Stringer L.C., Termansen M., Thorp S., Towers W., Worrall F. (2009). The future of the uplands. Land Use Policy, 26S, S204-S216.