Land management and land-use change has consequences for natural assets as well as the viability of land-based businesses and managing them requires cooperation and collaboration across a landscape. Adaptive Management, which iteratively uses evidence from monitoring interventions to evaluate the effectiveness of management interventions and inform the design of more effective alternatives, can support integrated land and water decision making to protect the multiple benefits derived from natural assets. This research is focused on a range of practical case studies that are representative of the major land uses in Scotland and seeks to identify and promote best practice in collective, landscape-scale Adaptive Management to help land managers deliver these benefits whilst maintaining viable land-based businesses.

The work involves researchers from the James Hutton Institute, Moredun Research Institute and Centre for Hydrology and Ecology (Edinburgh) working closely with local communities, land managers, Scottish Government agencies and environmental NGOs.

Aim of Research

The aim of this research is to evaluate the potential to manage trade-offs and deliver multiple benefits from natural assets at the landscape scale. Focussing on agri-environment and woodland expansion schemes, together with integrated catchment management, the research uses practical examples to explore trade-offs and impacts taking into account social and cultural values as well environmental considerations in relation to land use and land use change. We provide practical guidance to land managers and other stakeholders and illustrate how existing and novel policy measures can improve the management of our natural assets to support sustainable land-based industries and vibrant communities.

Our work is organised as follows:

• Applying an adaptive management framework to facilitate the evaluation and coordination of measures to deliver multiple benefits – contact Kit MacLeod
• Assessing the potential for agri-environmental measures to deliver multiple benefits at a landscape scale – contact Laure Kuhfuss
• Developing approaches that reconcile woodland expansion with other land use priorities – contact Katrina Brown.
• To use adaptive management to integrate water management options for the delivery of multiple benefits – contact Kit Macleod. This work incorporates an ongoing project in the Lunan Catchment.

Further information

General information on the Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutes (SEFARI) and the Scottish Government funded Strategic Research Portfolio can be found on the SEFARI website.
Within this, there are webpages providing summary overview information for each of the Research Deliverables (RDs) within the Strategic Programme. The page for RD 1.4.3 Practical interventions to realise multiple benefits and manage trade-offs is available here and includes annual progress and highlights summaries, key outputs and links to case studies and key research staff.
To complement this, a more extensive list of outputs is provided below.

Outputs:

• Brown, K.M. (2017). Digital Storytelling Mapping (DSM) methodology. RESAS1.4.3c Deliverable D3. The James Hutton Institute
• Donaldson-Selby G (2017) Visualisation of Future Woodland Scenarios, JamesHutton Institute, 9 pp.
• Macleod, C.J.A., K. Blackstock, A. Eastwood, K. Prager, A. Gimona, K. Brown, and J. Irvine. (2016). An overview of examples of adaptive management in action from the UK and internationally and selection of the most appropriate approach for the Scottish institutional context.
• Macleod, C.J.A., K. Blackstock, K. Brown, A. Eastwood, A. Fisher, A. Gimona, K. Prager, and R. J. Irvine. (2016). Adaptive management evaluation framework. RESAS1.4.3a Deliverable M2.
• Rajagopalan, D., and L. Kuhfuss. 2017. “Agri-Environmental Concerns and the Potential for Catchment-Scale Cooperation near Five Case-Study Research Farms in Scotland: an overview of the initial scoping exercise”. RESAS 1.4.3b D1. The James Hutton Institute.
• Brown K (2016) Living with Capercaillie: experiences from Boat of Garten, Research Briefing, James Hutton Institute.
• Brown K, Irvine J, Fischer A, Eastwood A and Herrett S (2016) Co-constructing the research agenda on accessible rural woodland expansion, James Hutton Institute, 7pp.
• Brown K, Irvine J, Fischer A, Eastwood A and Herrett S (2016) Benefits from woodland derived by communities from case study areas and the main trade-offs, James Hutton Institute, 24pp.
• Macleod, C.J.A. and R. Hewitt (2017). Summary of research on developing a more integrated approach to land and water management using incentives and regulations for the delivery of multiple benefits: exploring national and regional level stakeholder views and needs.
• Skuce, P., Mitchell, G., Cuthill, G., Zadoks, R., McCracken, D. & Irvine, J. (2017). Liver fluke risk and agri-environment schemes. Poster.
• Westerink, J., R. Jongeneel, N. Polman, K. Prager, J. Franks, P. Dupraz and E. Mettepenningen (2017). "Collaborative governance arrangements to deliver spatially coordinated agri-environmental management." Land Use Policy 69: 176-19
• Van Hulst, F.J., J Irvine and K Prager (2017) Summary of Glensaugh farm event, RESAS 1.4.3.b Research Deliverable D2, James Hutton Institute
• Hewitt, R., Macleod, C.J.A., Baggio Compagnucci, A., Castellazzi, M., Miller, D.G. and A. Gimona (2018) Maps of land use data and ecosystem services for Scotland: examples applied to the National Parks and Aberdeenshire River Dee. The James Hutton Institute.
• Eastwood, A., Fischer, A., Hague, A. and Brown, K. (2019) Adaptive co-management of the Scottish uplands – the role of social networks. Research Briefing. James Hutton Institute. UK.