Consultation on Scottish Natural Heritage's wild land mapping - please respond by 20 December

The Scottish Government is considering whether to protect Scotland's finest areas of wild land in new planning policy. Scottish Natural Heritage has identified 'core areas' of wild land in Scotland, and is currently consulting on the map they have produced. If this map is adopted by the Government, it would represent a long-overdue recognition of the existence of Scotland's invaluable wild areas, and could be the first step in properly protecting them. If not, the rapid industrialisation of wild land will continue unchecked.  It is therefore very important to respond to this consultation and send a clear message that wild land should be recognised and protected in planning policy.

The consultation documents can be accessed here. There are only three short questions to answer and submission is quick and easy.

Please remember to respond by Friday 20 December!


The Scottish Wild Land Group's response can be read here. Our main points are:

• The 'core areas' of wild land identified on Scottish Natural Heritage’s (SNH) current 2013 map are intrinsically valid and wholly defensible.
• We believe that the map is a very necessary, objective summary of some of the best areas of wild land in the country.
• The value of our wild land is immense, not just within a national and European context but globally; a resource, both material and non-material, which we should be proud to offer the world. The map has a crucial role to play in identifying the scale and nature of that resource.
• We consider the map, nevertheless, to represent a minimal definition of Scotland’s wild land, and one that would become invalid if further eroded. We note the absence of some areas identified as core areas of wild land in SNH’s Version 2: Interim Phase 1 Map, and contend that further changes made on the basis of consultation responses or commercial lobbying, and not on the basis of the kind of objective criteria employed by SNH, would be inappropriate. 
• We suggest that there should be scope for additional areas of core wild land to be added to this map in the years ahead, if and when they are identified as satisfying the necessary criteria.
  

You may also want to read the response of the John Muir Trust, and the open letter to the Government written by the SWLG and seven other environmental groups last summer, calling for greater protection of Scotland's landscapes.