About the Project
This project used an established conceptual framework for understanding transformational change in agriculture (the ‘Triggering Change Model’), to assess how substantive environmental changes in large land-holding trajectories can be enabled to contribute to net zero and biodiversity targets. The objectives of the study were: (i) directly informing decision-making processes on participating landholdings; and (ii) developing research and communication tools that will help policy and industry partners to work effectively with land managers in order to influence environmental transformations in line with Net Zero targets.
Large landholders are high impact but ‘hard-to-reach’ and were brought into the research through Scottish Land and Estates, a popular membership organisation. Interviews assessed change trajectories on large holdings, with a specific focus on succession processes (a well-recognised moment for change which is internal to the landholding unit). A workshop conducted with interview participants assessed the effectiveness of climate change mapping tools (a novel, external means of triggering change). Findings were analysed to identify best practice in supporting the managers of large land holdings to make transformational change, enabling industry organisations to better support their members, and provide a foundation for future research which integrate social and natural sciences.
Outputs
Interview protocol to assess change trajectories on large land holdings
Workshop protocol for supporting discussion of climate change impacts and associated risks with stakeholder groups
Storyboard with climate change visualisations of Scotland and the Cairngorms National Park Area for the workshop with participants
Research Team
Project lead: Naomi Beingessner (The James Hutton Institute)
Project collaborators: Large landowners recruited through Scottish Land and Estates (SLE), facilitated by Eleanor Kay (SLE Senior Policy Advisor), Annie McKee (The James Hutton Institute), Hannah Budge (The James Hutton Institute), Mike Rivington (The James Hutton Institute), Mohamed Jabloun (The James Hutton Institute) Noah Kelly (The James Hutton Institute), Lee-Ann Sutherland (The James Hutton Institute)
Project funder: UKRI Agri-food for Net Zero Network
