I WELCOME Alistair Grant's article where he picks up the idea of an urgent need for more national parks (NPs) in Scotland ("Campaigners: Go wild and create more national parks in Scotland", The Herald, April 6).
The Scottish Campaign for National Parks (SCNP) has been campaigning strongly for national parks for more than 65 years and was closely involved in the establishment of the two that we have following the passing of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000. It is this campaigning that has triggered the establishment of the current Borders and Galloway NP campaigns, both of which now enjoy local authority and significant public and business support.
Given, as John Mayhew, manager of the Scotland National Parks Strategy Project, and SCNP argue, that NPs are a sound investment with little or no financial risk involved, it continues to baffle me why the Scottish Government does not grasp the opportunity to boost our tourism industry, support fragile rural communities, protect and ensure sound management of our outstanding landscapes, further develop the well-known health and social benefits of contact with nature, protect and enhance the wildlife and marine coastal environment, rescue and restore our peatlands to provide huge CO2 reductions and more. The list of benefits of NP designation is almost endless and a common feature of them throughout the world. The SNP suggests that it is keeping up with international best practice but it is clearly failing miserably in respect to NP designations.
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) ought to be out there campaigning for the seven more NPs SCNP has proposed with all the attached benefits Francesca Osowska of SNH listed in the article. Mairi Gougeon, the Rural Affairs Minister, also admitted to the huge benefits of NP designation and it would be a wonderful antidote to the totally depressing political shambles of Brexit if the SNP could, in the midst of this, recognise the positivity and benefits for us and our children and grandchildren of seven more NPs in Scotland.
Ross Anderson,
The Studio, East Lochhead,
Kilbirnie Road, Lochwinnoch.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel