Scotland is close to the hearts of many people in the United States and Canada, whether from family connections, or from having visited. And it is often Scotland’s landscapes, from the mountainscapes, coasts and islands of the Highlands, to the farmland and woods of the fertile Lowlands, that draw people’s imagination and sense of belonging.
APRS (Action to Protect Rural Scotland) is a charity protecting Scotland’s world renowned landscapes and countryside for the benefit of everyone, and for future generations. This has been our mission for nearly 100 years.
If you love Scotland’s beautiful countryside and landscapes and wish to help us in our work, you can join the Friends of APRS in the US and Canada. We will send an email bulletin quarterly to keep you updated with our work and we would welcome you to pop in and visit us in our offices if you happen to be in Edinburgh.
If anyone reading this wishes to be more involved by helping fundraise more widely, found a local Friends of APRS group, or chat with me about ways you can help fund a specific project, please get in touch!
Kat Jones, Director APRS
Introducing APRS
Who we are and What we do
About APRS
Find out about our objectives, value, governance and strategy.
Policy & Campaigns
We campaign to protect and enhance Scotland’s rural landscapes.
Our History
We have been protecting Scotland’s Landscapes for nearly 100 years
Green Belts
Help protect the green places around our towns and cities that provide space for people and nature
National Parks
We want more National Parks – the very best of our landscapes, providing livelihoods and opportunities to visit
Planning Advice
We support communities and individuals campaigning to protect their local countryside through the planning system
Latest news from APRS
Our Director Kat Jones has been walking around the linked Green Belts in 10 local authority areas around Glasgow. In her weekends and days off she has managed 27 separate sections totalling over 300km. This page brings together all her blogs of the walk, follow her adventures through bogs and landfill sites, beautiful countryside and the largest derelict site in Europe.
With so much bad news around it is good to celebrate a significant campaign win. APRS were part of a coalition led by Mountaineering Scotland and JMT to challenge applications for hundreds of phone masts in remote mountain areas. These would have gone in places that did not serve businesses or communities and were just to comply with a geographical target. The plans have been scaled back by 80% which is a major win for the group of NGOs and communities campaigning on this.
We are delighted that the Appeal against the refusal of planning permission for nearly 1000 houses, business premises and associated infrastructure in Green Belt near Calderbank in North Lanarkshire has been dismissed. The local community have been fighting development in their Green Belt for nearly 10 years.
Read our latest newsletters
We send out a printed newsletter once a year and e-bulletins about every two months, you can sign up below.
Newsletter 2025
Read our 2025 Printed Newsletter online! We are excited that Spring is in the air and our AGM is just
Spring Newsletter 2025
The most important is the in-person event ‘The Nature of Planning’ that we are hosting with Planning Democracy on 22 March. We hope to see you there! We also have news on the process for designating a new National Park for Scotland, an invitation to a talk and panel discussion on ‘environment campaigning in a polarised world’ at the Scottish Campaign for National Parks AGM and a history blog about our founder Frank Mears.