COMMUNITY-landowners are punching above their weight in the fight to save the planet from climate change with projects including developing renewables and planting native woodlands.

And the subject will come under discussion at Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts at part of Cop26 activities by Community Land Scotland (CLS), which supports local groups to buy land and assets for their communities.

Dùthchas: Our Land, Everyone’s Future, will feature speakers from around the world discussing the connection between communities, land, culture and the environment – a subject which encapsulated in Gaelic by the term Dùthchas.

Speakers will include author and land reformer, Alastair McIntosh; Joan Carling, co-convenor of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development and Nonette Royo of the Tenure Facility, which works to support land and forest rights for indigenous people and communities. Scotland will be represented by Galson Estate Trust in Lewis, the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust and Bridgend Farmhouse in Edinburgh.

Ailsa Raeburn, chair of CLS, said: “The evidence shows that community and indigenous landowners are by far the most effective stewards of the environment. However we are now in the middle of a huge land rush in Scotland.

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“Community landowners are being squeezed out of the market by the rise of green lairds – corporations and wealthy individuals who are buying up land for carbon credits to offset their own emissions, and top-down rewilding initiatives.

“Scotland has a completely unregulated land market and this new land rush demonstrates the urgent need for new legislation to regulate the market, including public interest tests to ensure that Scotland’s land is used for the benefit of as many of Scotland’s people as possible.

“It will be really useful to hear about communities and indigenous people from beyond Scotland who are responding to similar challenges.”

A recent study from CLS – Community Landowners and the Climate Emergency – showed they were punching above their weight in the fight to save the planet from climate change with their work on renewables, native woodlands, community food growing, EV infrastructure and others.

Bronze casts of peat from community-owned land in Lewis, made by artist Virginia Hutchison, will be on display. Chair of Galson Estate Trust (Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn) and CLS vice-chair, Agnes Rennie, said: “These bronze casts symbolise the relationship between the people of Galson and their land.

“The peat was cast in a mould using a traditionally cut peat from Galson. At one time, everyone cut peat for fuel and the process was seasonal and communal, involving families and neighbours.

“Every layer of peat has a name. Every type of peat has a name, and this varies from place to place and language. And now we speak of peatland restoration and carbon sinks.”

The trust is spearheading various environmental initiatives including its community owned wind turbines, campaigns around shopping local and energy efficiency, and was one of the first communities to buy an electric minibus when the technology was new.

CLS, along with If Not Us Then Who, will take a group of indigenous leaders from around the world to Kilfinan Community Forest in Argyll, where local people will share the story of Scotland’s land reform journey.

They will also explain how community ownership can deliver a just transition to net zero and ensure as many people as possible can benefit from Scotland’s land.