Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 07 June 2022
I convey my apologies, as I must leave the debate early in order to meet my travel commitments later this afternoon. I have permission from the Presiding Officer to do so.
Scottish Liberal Democrats will support new national parks and the motion. During the pandemic, as the restrictions in local areas lifted, I saw for myself how people—many of whom had lived in Shetland all their lives—discovered parts of our islands that they had never ventured to before and found that the spectacular sights in the natural world around us improved their wellbeing during that tough time.
I will begin with a few words about the next generation and the climate; I will then speak about the benefits of new national parks and including communities in the decision-making process for them.
Our party has long believed that the stewardship of our planet should be taken more seriously and considered more closely. I believe that there is great hope of that as we look to the next generation. We have much to learn from young climate activists such as Greta Thunberg. Young people have had an incredible impact on the conversation around the climate emergency so far. The school strikes in 2019 made a huge difference, and we saw young people marching down the Royal Mile and knocking on Parliament’s door. Governments around the world, including in Scotland, were forced to declare a climate emergency.
That had a real impact on decision makers in the Scottish Parliament, and it helped Scottish Liberal Democrats to win the argument for stronger targets for 2030 during the passage of the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019—with support from others, we amended the law.
Creating new national parks is an effective shorter-term action that we can take to help to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises. Those reasons alone should be sufficient to create new national parks, but there are greater benefits, as other members have already mentioned.
In 1982, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries created a term that translates as “forest bathing”, or absorbing the forest atmosphere, to encourage people to spend time in nature. We know that outdoor spaces help people’s mental and physical health and wellbeing. Creating new national parks has the potential to encourage new visitors to enjoy an area that they may never have considered before. Rural employment can also be boosted as new jobs are created to help to maintain the land further.
However, we must also consider local infrastructure. If we anticipate that more tourists will visit an area, we have to consider upgrades to local roads and trails, plans for conservation of land and all that can be damaged by tourism. We must work together to ensure that communities get the most out of new national parks.
Scottish Liberal Democrats welcome the start of stakeholder engagement for new national parks. No two places in nature are identical. Each community has something unique in its green local spaces to protect and promote. We must be sensitive to that and listen to the voices of people who live in and near any proposed new national park. They would be the first to be impacted by any issue, they know their areas best and they stand to benefit the most from a new national park.
We should also be mindful of what we could be asking of residents by embracing greater tourism. There can be tension between residents and tourism, and we need to be mindful of that from the start of the process. We must work out solutions that involve listening to local concerns and engaging in meaningful consultations.
The Scottish Liberal Democrat 2021 manifesto committed us to supporting the development of a new national strategy to designate more national parks as part of a wider network of protected landscape. We are willing to work with others to establish such a network. Our manifesto also committed us to developing the position of an outdoor recreation champion in Government to help everyone in Scotland to maximise the benefit of new national parks.
We recognise the important role that local communities and stakeholders will play during consultations about new national parks, and we encourage them to voice their opinions.