THEY have been blamed for obstructing local communities' aspirations, damaging the environment or behaving like Victorian lairds; but landowners are today launching a new charter setting out how they should behave in today's Scotland.
The charter, which has four main areas, recognises the way some landowners operate has to change for the better.
Scottish Land & Estates (SL&E), a representative body for landowners, argues it is essential to demonstrate clearly what good land ownership and management means, and set standards of good practice to which all landowners should aspire.
The four main pillars of the charter form a clear undertaking that SL&E's 2,500 members should be "open, inclusive, enabling and responsible".
These include welcoming responsible public access and promoting enjoyment of rural Scotland, and working with tenants and the wider community to encourage and support enterprise and business development. The charter also stresses landowners should be aware of how their actions affect those who live and work in rural Scotland and those who visit for enjoyment.
In addition they should "treat everyone with courtesy, politeness and respect, and act with integrity across land-based business activities".
Sporting estates are often associated with the death of protected birds of prey by poisoning, so the charter also makes clear that landowners should "openly condemn bad and illegal practice where it exists".
David Johnstone, chairman of Scottish Land & Estates, said that the commitment sent a clear message of what constitutes good practice in land ownership.
He said: "There are those who take great delight in stigmatising private landownership regardless of the overwhelming evidence of the positive contribution we make.
"Time and again we are reminded that the admirable efforts of the majority of landowners are undermined by a minority who make little or no effort to engage with their communities or the people who they work with and live alongside. Numerous examples of good practice can be negated by isolated cases of bad practice within the sector.
"We recognise that there is always scope for improvement in the way landowners operate in a modern Scotland."
SL&E points to the 7,000-acre Drimnin Estate on the Morvern Peninsula which has been given a new lease of life by new owners Derek Lewis, who is a former head of the prison service in England and Wales, and his wife. Since they bought the estate, they have embarked on an extensive programme of restoration and development which has seen historic buildings restored, renewable energy objectives set and affordable housing being built.
Among their activities, the flagship project has been to restore Drimnin Chapel which is perched on a rocky outcrop on the shore of the Sound of Mull. Mr Lewis said: "We have always been committed to working as part of the local community and taking an open and inclusive approach, which we hope is making a real contribution to the vitality and sustainability of the local area."
However some people feel the charter does not go far enough towards providing a framework for rural communities in 21st century Scotland.
David Cameron, chairman of Community Land Scotland, the umbrella body for community landlords such as Eigg and Gigha, said of the charter: "You have to ask how it will empower communities to develop the land on which they live and work and directly share the benefits of that development; how it will prevent land being bought and sold for the wrong reasons; and how it will give a community long-term stability when land passes from one generation or individual, to another?"
He suspected the charter was prompted only by threatened changes to the Land Reform Act to give communities new purchase rights.
"I would have been able to be more enthusiastic about this initiative if it had included real change by committing landowners to engage with communities in offering to sell some of their vast land holdings to communities which want to go down that road," he said.
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