Rural Futures: A look towards the rural world of 2025

Wednesday 9 December 2009 | 10.00am to 4.30pm

The cost for the day conference will be £10.00 which includes coffee/tea and lunch. Programme, background information and booking form information given below.

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

Welcome: Rt Rev Mark Strange, Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness

Theme 1: Our rural world now and in the future

Paper 1 Rural demographics: How will they change?*
Richard Wakeford, director General Rural Futures, Scottish Government

Paper 2 How do we plan our current Rural communities and how might that change?*
Veronica Burbridge, Royal Town Planning Institutue in Scotland

Theme 2 The big picture issues

Paper 3 The future supply and affordability of energy*
Donald Bruce, Edinethics and formerly director Society, Religion and Technology project, Church of Scotland

Paper 4 The impact of environmental concerns on the rural landscape*
Stewart Housden, director RSPB Scotland

Lunch

Theme 3 Rural activities

The importance of Scotland: presentation by a Scottish Minister (to be confirmed)

Paper 5 What will our future agriculture look like?*
Ken Rundell, Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh and formerly presenter of BBC’s Landward

Paper 6 The future face of rural tourism
Riddell Graham, Visit Scotland

Theme 4 The making of future rural communities

Paper 7 Education as a means of allowing our heritage to prepare for the future*
Pam Rodway, Soil Association, Edinburgh

Paper 8 Networks and connections in rural Scotland*
Norman MasAskill, SCVO, Inverness

Final discussion

4.30pm End of meeting

BACKGROUND

Planning for the future frequently involves our best estimates of how that future is likely to be and what the most probable consequences of that future is likely to involve for us in terms of the actions we need to take. At its General Synod in 2008 the Scottish Episcopal Church set up a Rural Commission as a means of informing its forward planning.  Part of this exercise has involved the gathering of information on where we now are but it is clear that it must also involve horizon scanning; looking to the future in a time frame beyond that which can be predicted by simple extrapolation.

As we look ahead some things will be essentially the same or natural developments of where we are now. We need to identify what they are. Other things will be different, in some cases radically different. These things take time to plan for as they commonly involve overturning our set preconceptions. These radically different things prevent a smooth planning process. We can not predict them by extrapolating from the past. In addition some of the more important changes will be independent of developments in the rural sector itself, such as issues related to climate change and energy supplies. Our best chance of being prepared is to look at the horizon and to sketch out our vision for the future. Having a vision of the rural sector is necessary for the churches but it is also critical for all who are concerned with the future of rural communities.

Different churches and other organisations will respond to a vision of the future in different ways but all need the same future picture. Scotland’s Churches have thus come together through the aegis of Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) to organise a rural horizon scanning event.

The Agenda

Our rural communities and the rural environment will be changed by developments of at least four very different kinds. The size of the rural population and its distribution and how we estimate its needs through the mechanisms of our current political, administrative, and planning processes will determine much of the scope of our agenda.

Rural communities can not be isolated from major global changes which will affect most aspects of life across the globe such as changes in the availability and in the cost of energy, the impact of global climate change and of the value we place on biodiversity and conservation. The impact of these factors is however likely to be very different in the rural situation to in urban communities.

All communities require economic activity to remain viable. The nature of the rural environment means that agriculture and the closely related forestry and fishing will continue to be the largest users of land and so at the heart of the rural landscape. Tourism, currently the largest single rural industry, will remain important. How agriculture and tourism change will thus have major impact on the look and the prosperity of rural Scotland.

The ways in which rural communities work together and function as more than merely a collection of individuals sharing a geographic location has changed greatly over recent years. The rate of development of broadband and other internet related facilities has already had a significant impact on the functioning of the rural household. It will continue to do so. It will affect education both in relation to what is taught and how that education is provided and the relationship between education and traditional Scottish ways of life such as Crofting.

It is important to explore all of these aspects as they will create the background to how the church will need to be and who might be and how it should work with partners so as to be effective in this setting.

-------------------------------------------------------------

BOOKING FORM RURAL FUTURES CONFERENCE

Wednesday 9 December at Church of Scotland, 121 George St, Edinburgh EH2 4YN

Name: ______________________________________________________

Address: ___________________________________________________

_________________________________Post Code_________________

Email: ___________________________________________________

Contact Telephone: ____________________________________

I give ACTS permission to hold these details on their main database

Please book _____ Place/places for the following people

Name: __________________ Name: ___________________________

Name: __________________ Name: ___________________________

I enclose a cheque for £ ____________________________

Please send this form with payment to:
Rural Futures Conference, ACTS, 7 Forrester Lodge, Inglewood House, Alloa FK10 2HU
before 27th November 2009

Location

Church of Scotland Offices, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN

The event location pinpointed on Google Maps →

Contact

Shona Paterson, Rural Futures Conference, ACTS, 7 Forrester Lodge, Inglewood House, Alloa FK10 2HU T 01259 222362, or 01259 216980, E shonapaterson@acts-scotland.org W www.acts-scotland.org