I am just back from this amazing conference. 1400 miles was a bit far to drive but it was worth it. Community land ownership now represents 2.5% of Scottish land. It has a key role in changing the unequal distribution of land, involving more people in making decisions about land, and ensuring that more people benefit from the wealth that comes from the land, both in rural and urban areas.
I wanted to learn about what has been happening with the movement for more community ownership and about how the community buy-outs and other community-led projects are getting on. Here are some of the key things I learned. However, it made me want to do more anthropology research- an in-depth study of one of the communities that now own the land. I am hoping to learn more by being part of the Community Landownership Academic Network https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/res-themes/silk/clan/.
1. The importance of community ownership in empowering people who have been marginalised and dispossessed. One crofter told me that at first he had not been supportive of the community buy-out proposal but now he is proud. He thinks of his grandfather who came back from the war hoping to get land, but nothing had changed. He wishes his grandfather could see the now- the actual owners of the land, working towards the benefit of all rather than private profit.
2. The diverse range of community ownership from small islands to community assets in urban settings. Many small towns had set up local development trusts which worked to obtain more genuinely affordable housing and ownership of economic, social and cultural assests. For example, the Coigach Community Development Company (https://coigachcommunity.com/ )and the Tomintoul and Glenlivet Development Trust (https://www.tgdt.org.uk/home/).
3. The complex nature of making everyone in a community come together, engage, and participate fully in decision-making. People talked about the problem of governance and I wanted to know more about how communities actually organised themselves so as to involve everyone. There is also problems of accountability where there are no structures in place to hold trustees to account when poor decisions are made. People don’t have the experience but often there is a lack of honesty about the weaknesses of community-managed land. It will take time for people to develop skills and capacity. Also, the government may help with funding to buy the land, but then there is not the funds to help with making the buy-out work.
4. The existence of conflicts within communities, even when those are quite small. It could be personal conflicts that have a long history or disagreements over how the land should be managed. For example, some communities are bringing wind turbines as a way of bringin in income but not everyone agrees.
5. The problems of hierarchies and people finding ways of enriching themselves within the community context. If communities, or sections of communities, are acting like private landowners with the goal of making profit rather than working towards the benefit of the whole community, then not much has changed. An example was given to me of one crofter buying up 30 crofts for his own profit rather than helping to expand the number of crofters and bringing people in to the community.
6. Incomers vs Locals
In my research this was a big issue and I expected to find some evidence of this being an issue in the community buy-outs. However, I was struck by the number of English who are invovled in community ownership with several trustees in community development trusts coming from south of the border. Many of the small communities that now own their land would not exist if it hadn’t been for incomers. The Isle of Rum is an extreme example as it had been completely cleared. So they are in the process of creating a community with people from all over.
However, some did mention the importance of people appreciating the local heritage. One example was given to me of a family moved up from Oxfordshire who wanted nothing to do with anyone. They had come for the landscape tne the quiet.
7. I attended a session on repopulation and this is a big issue. The key to this is housing. It is often not the issue of jobs but of having the housing people can afford, especially young people as they seek to set up their own households. However, like in many other parts of Britain, eg Cornwall, renting to the tourist trade is taking properties off the market for locals and pushing prices up as demand in the buy-to-let market increases. AirBnB and second homes are a real problem.
8. The potential conflict between different goals of community land ownership. One of the main ones is “community wealth-building”. Another key one is addressing the ecological crisis of climate change, loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation. I wasn’t sure what would happen if these two came into direct conflict. What would be the priority? Is community ownership the best form of land tenure for achieving environmental goals? For example, on the Isle of Lewis, the example of ecological restoration was a project to restore the peat which had been intensively cut. However, some in the community still want to cut peat as this is traditional so they are allowed to cut peat elsewhere- maybe not completely ofsetting the other work but not really in keeping with the policy of restoration.
A speaker from West Papua stressed that in the indigenous communities people see the health of the land as the health of the people- the earth is a mother and must be cared for. So livelihood and environmental senses of place are not in conflict as long as fishing and farming are the main economic activities which depend on a healthy environment. They are under threat, like many other parts of the world from mining and logging- with big corporations wanting to get hold of their land.
What about in Scotland? It seems that development is key for many areas, including communities who own the land. They do not necessarily have this attitude of the earth being a Mother. One crofter told me that people need to love and appreciate nature in order to balance the needs of nature with the needs of people. He said many that he knows do, but many don’t.
9. The slow pace of land reform. Despite Scotland being ahead of England and Wales, it was suggested by people such as MSP Mercedes Villalba that radical change is needed in distribution. She is putting forward a private members bill to include things like limiting the size of personal land holdings to 500 hectares. Other mentioned the price of land as an obstacle to more community buy-outs. The amount available to communities thinking of buying is very small in comparison to the current market value of land.
10. Linked to the above was a concern of carbon offsetting and the market in carbon credits which is pushing up the price of land. On Lewis, the Carloway Estate borders on a private estate, such that part of the township in private hands and part owned by the community. It is unlikely that the owner will want to sell even if the locals did want to do a community buy-out because of the money there now is to be made out of carbon credits. Also, they would probably not be able to afford it with the price of land going up. The Coigach Community Development Company had looked at buying Tanara- the Wicker Man Island- but the asking price was 2.5 million. It has now been bought up by a wealthy businessman with plans to turn the island into a luxury holiday destination. In Tomintoul, the development trust struggles to get land from the Crown Estate, now owned by the Scottish government. The government, despite paying lip service to community ownership is not willing to part with land which has the potential to bring in a lot of money.
More info: https://www.communitylandscotland.org.uk/resources/2023-annual-conference/
Land for What? Land for Whom? 