In this blog, which is an edited version of an article printed in Wild Land News, John Thomson, APRS chair, and small farmer in Galloway, gives a personal take on the proposal for a new National Park in Galloway. John has, for many years, been closely involved with National Parks in the UK and the rest of Europe and who has campaigned for more both in Scotland generally and specifically in Galloway.
Readers of this blog may wonder why Galloway has been selected against competition from perhaps more obvious candidates such as Lochaber and Highland Perthshire. The area put forward for designation is deliberately not specified tightly in the case presented. It could in principle embrace the whole of the very extensive UNESCO Biosphere, as well as an adjoining stretch of the Solway coast, or it may be much more limited.
What are the benefits?
What benefits might designation bring? It does of course include three of southern Scotland’s five National Scenic Areas. But with so many fine landscapes and precious habitats elsewhere in the country, why prioritise Galloway? Should the bid essentially be read, as some have suggested, just as a plea for some attention and socio-economic support?
From my knowledge of Scotland, I personally have no doubt that many parts of it could entirely credibly lay claim to the National Park accolade. But equally I am in no doubt that the selection of Galloway as the country’s potential third National Park was justified. The socio-economic case is indeed a strong one: the region has a weak, low-wage economy, an ageing population and is all too often overlooked – not only by visitors but also by policy-makers and by others seeking an attractive place to live and work. Partly because of this, it holds out the exciting prospect of a National Park that does not simply respond to existing pressures, for example from increasing visitor numbers, but prepares and plans for them in a way that secures the benefits without suffering the problems that often accompany them.
The contrast with, for instance, recent experience with the North Coast 500, where so much catching up was required, is stark and obvious.
Why Galloway?
But that is very far from the main or only argument. Indeed, the prospect would only be realistic if the region had genuine attractions to offer. And it does. It boasts a fascinating diversity of landscapes and habitats from high tops to the sea. Undulating, highly glaciated farmland is criss-crossed by characteristic drystane dykes, threaded by appealingly wooded river valleys and hosts a multitude of attractive villages and farmsteads. Its lengthy and varied coastline is not only a key resource in itself but affords the potential to extend a National Park into the marine environment.
“Galloway is both a world apart and a Scotland in miniature.”
There is an equally strong and diverse cultural component, embracing archaeological remains from many eras, architectural interest both religious and vernacular, and literary and artistic associations running right up to the present day. It is both a world apart and, to a meaningful degree, a Scotland in miniature. It truly deserves to be better known and should certainly not be seen as a dumping ground for developments unwanted elsewhere, such as the nuclear waste repository once proposed for its inner sanctum.
Features at risk
At the same time, however, many of these distinguishing features are at significant risk. The region now faces severe pressure for still more plantation forestry, agricultural intensification and renewable energy development. Despite some recent improvements in, for example, forestry practice, the overall effect could all too easily be to erode the character and quality of the region’s landscapes and degrade its diverse habitats. Indeed, it is perhaps surprising – and testimony to its intrinsic interest – that despite all the forces making for often harmful change it still retains so much of value.
This history of land use change has, over the years, generated a lot of attention and concern amongst the local population. It has stimulated a real and widespread desire amongst local communities to have more of a say in shaping their futures. Most appreciate that the quality of the environment is increasingly important, not only to their own well-being, but to the prospects of achieving and maintaining a diversified rural economy. They want more sensitive, better integrated land use and wider recognition of the fact that the welfare of rural society is not just about the fortunes of farming and forestry, central to it though these and related activities will remain.
New approaches
This level of public interest and awareness makes Galloway an ideal location to explore what rural sustainability will look like in practice. Climate change alone will drive changes, in the form of adaptation as well as mitigation. What form should these take? Can the best of what exists be retained and if so, how? How can the overall environment be enhanced? The realm of forestry is an obvious case in point. Woodland cover is already high. But much of it consists of near-monocultures of non-native species. There is a real opportunity to experiment and to demonstrate how to switch to a more varied species mix and more natural woodland ecosystems. At the same time a more sophisticated silvicultural regime of this kind will have to reflect a rapidly changing climate, which may require the introduction and accommodation of hitherto unfamiliar species better suited to the new conditions.
“Galloway needs the profile and recognition that a well-designed National Park, tailored to its particular circumstances and needs, would provide.”
For agriculture, the time has surely come to farm more sustainably – with nature rather than against it. A National Park with the capacity to encourage and support innovation of this kind could play a major role in helping farmers to explore new techniques, find new customers and wean themselves off the current relentless financial treadmill. It could provide the sort of infrastructure, advice and mediation required to ensure that increased tourism and demand for public access sits comfortably with contemporary farming practice. In this, and other ways, it could bring people together to identify shared interests and common ground, and to achieve a measure of mutual understanding and reconciliation even where interests continue to diverge.
All these aspirations for a National Park in a predominantly managed landscape like Galloway’s tie in well with the expanded agenda for National Parks mooted by the Scottish Government, with its emphasis on reversing biodiversity loss and achieving a just transition to a net zero society and economy. The region’s diversity of landscapes means that it can offer a test bed for approaches relevant across the wider countryside of Scotland. Moreover the stock of relevant experience and expertise upon which it can build extends well beyond the community level interest already highlighted. It possesses forest management experience in abundance, an agricultural research and training base close by, and, in the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, an organisation that for over a decade has striven with increasing success to play very much the sort of role here envisaged for a National Park.
The need to bring people together
This task involves above all bringing people together to better understand their, and their communities’, options and aspirations for the future. In Galloway, as everywhere else, there is a real danger that if the current opportunity is not seized, environmental decline, and socio-economic decline will continue and even accelerate.
It is a widely acknowledged truth that a society will only care for what it knows and values and Galloway needs the profile and recognition that a well-designed National Park, tailored to its particular circumstances and needs, would provide.
I hope that APRS members and supporters, especially those based in Galloway, will respond to the consultation that NatureScot is running on Galloway as a National park.
