Crofters have long been working in a sustainable way to produce food and environmental benefits.
And, as I have pointed out before, it is no coincidence that most of the High Nature Value areas of Scotland correspond with the crofting areas.
There is plenty more that we can be doing and the commitment by the Scottish Government of £613 million to keep up, and indeed increase in some areas, the budget for activity related to climate change is very welcome.
Many crofters also provide tourist accommodation and local food for tourist outlets and this has been seriously affected adversely by Covid-19.
Crofters often fall outside of support to tourist providers and this needs to be addressed.
While visitors are very welcome, there are some associated problems that are increasing in the remoter crofting areas –places of scenic beauty –exacerbated by the relentless promotion of tourist hot-spots.
There have been far too many reports of dogs worrying, wounding and killing livestock, damage to croft fences and gates, inappropriate parking, rubbish left, and so on.
It is not uncommon to find human waste of all kinds in parking spaces, on verges and where someone ‘wild-camped’ on croft land.
And it is not uncommon for crofters to get verbal abuse for asking the culprit to desist.
The Access Code may be clear about this but people are unaware of the code or ignore it.
Stock-worrying, littering, damage, and verbal abuse are all offences so it is a police matter, but the shortage of police cover in crofting areas and the time taken to respond to calls for help in remote places, or the impossibility of tracing someone who has since left, make it an insurmountable task.
Facilities for travellers are desperately short and have not kept up with the promotion of tourist destinations.
If there are bins, toilets, portaloo emptying tanks etc available, most people will use them.
It is also essential that local authorities use the increase in tourism support in the budget to put in place the services, infrastructure and education needed – schools, tourism promoters, publications, signage, all working together to educate visitors.
There has long been a myth that people have the ‘right to roam’ in Scotland. This is not correct – people have the right to ‘responsible access’.
Talking of money, the second tranche on the convergence uplift was paid in January.
We would not expect to see everyone happy and there was discontent across the board about Scottish Government using this money to fill in the self-inflicted deficit in the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme.
The slight shift in money to the land that earned the rebate was welcomed by the Scottish Crofting Federation (SFC), and it was disappointing that the farmers’ union complained that arable (region 1) was not given enough.
Region 1 already collects above the European average, and it was taking the bulk of this payment which was intended as a rebate to those on low payments (regions 2 and 3).
I guess when it comes to the crunch it is clear who is really represented by this ‘union’.
Finishing on a very positive note, congratulations to Helen O’Keefe, who is crofting in Assynt, for her winning of the SCF Young Crofter Award.
The competition was stiff and heartfelt thanks and credit to all who were in the running, and to The MacRobert Trust for supporting this.
Well done Helen!
- Patrick Krause is chief executive of the Scottish Crofting Federation.