The Scotland's Land Reform Futures project began in April 2022.
Key achievements during the fourth year (2025 - 2026) include:
- Ongoing responsive research working closely with policy teams during the passage of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 through parliament, providing policy-responsive land data analyses to inform policy development. This work was shortlisted as an impact case study by the Scientific Advisory Board. A Storymap on Characteristics of Large-Scale Landholdings has been developed.
- The ‘citizen land science’ project has progressed, working in conjunction with a community development trust. Drop-in sessions and workshops have been held with community members at Kyle of Lochalsh to co-develop land data collection methodologies to support community priorities, and to provide training to local community ‘citizen land data scientists’. A final participatory mapping workshop was undertaken in March 2026.
- Ongoing promotion of the ‘values of land’ survey targeted at community landowners (or aspiring landowners), and the identification and agreement of case study communities to understand how community landownership affects the values that people associate with land. Qualitative data collection has been completed across four case studies to understand the longitudinal impacts of community landownership. Analysis is ongoing of data from four case studies to explore policy alignment across multiple scales and innovative land governance initiatives.
- A focus on sharing learning from Scotland and gathering insights relevant to Scottish land reform through international knowledge exchange. In October, members of the project team and Stakeholder Advisory Group travelled to the Netherlands, to visit innovative examples of alternative land tenure, and to participate in a knowledge exchange meeting with land researchers, farmers, and other sector representatives from the Netherlands and Belgium. The fieldtrip group presented their key learning points and reflections during the Scotland’s Land Reform Futures International Symposium, held on 11-12th November 2025 at the James Hutton Institute.
The Symposium involved 80 participants from across the UK, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Italy, New Zealand, and Japan. Speakers included Mairi Gougeon Member of the Scottish Parliament, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands, as well as the Chair of the Scottish Land Commission, Michael Russell. A report on the key discussion points from the Symposium will be published. The Stakeholder Advisory Group played a key role in developing the theme and programme for the Symposium, as well as chairing sessions and contributing to breakout group discussions. Outputs from the Symposium can be found here.
Key achievements during the third year (2024 - 2025) include:
- Publication of 'Review of land management agreements in Scotland', which informs Scottish Government policy around biodiversity, in particular, the Scottish Government’s ‘30 x 30’ target. In this report, a literature review and interviews with key stakeholders have informed a Typology of Land Management Agreements in Scotland. Analysis of interview data and additional grey literature brought to light opportunities for enabling wider engagement with Land Management Agreements as well as barriers to their uptake. Taking these enablers and challenges into account, a set of recommendations have been produced, with the aim of encouraging voluntary engagement from a variety of landowners with Land Management Agreements. The report is published on Zenodo.
- Responsive research conducted for the Land Reform Bill team, including work covering the identification, and characterisation, of large landholdings that may fall in scope of provisions set out in the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill. This included options for exploring the impact of spatial contiguity of large landholdings. Following up on the ‘Review of land ownership data in Scotland’ published in Year 2 (2023-2024), the team has participated in several meetings with Registers of Scotland to foster mutual understanding and establish joint working relationships.
- Initial fieldwork on longitudinal community landownership has taken place in case study communities to capture experiences of change over time in community landownership, with a resulting milestone report, and follow-up fieldwork planned for Year 4.
- The stakeholder advisory group continues be key to support and advice. A stakeholder advisory group member presented on ethical research consideration when working with community landowners, continuing a longstanding discussion in the group. Stakeholder advisory group input has informed survey development and dissemination, case study selection, and assisted with dissemination of research outputs. A report on their activities can be found here.
Key achievements during the second year (2023 - 2024) include:
- Conclusion of the technical and social feasibility studies, with the report ‘Review of land ownership data in Scotland’. The research team were informed that the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands wished to be kept informed of progress made on the report’s recommendations. The research team has also provided direct analytical support to the Land Reform Bill team and RESAS analysts in the development of the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment related to the forthcoming Land Reform Bill. The report is published on Zenodo and also available on our website.
- An approach to undertaking citizen science around land data has been developed, with input from the Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG). Initial approaches to rural community groups currently undertaking local place planning processes have commenced, with a view to their involvement as ‘citizen scientists’. A milestone report, 'Developing a citizen science initiative to support community land-based activities', can be found here.
- Two processes of case study scoping and selection have been completed, the first regarding policy alignment across multiple scales and exploring innovative land governance initiatives, with a milestone report found here, and secondly, to capture experiences of change over time in community landownership.
- The development of an online questionnaire to capture public land values from rural communities under different land reform scenarios is ongoing and will include an interim stage to better understand the motivations of aspiring and eventual community landowners.
- A literature review and in-depth interviews are progressing, which aim to learn about the opportunities and challenges relating to long-term land management agreements and approaches for biodiversity enhancement. A milestone report covers initial findings from research exploring the breadth of land management agreements for biodiversity enhancement that exist in Scotland, focussing on what enables voluntary uptake and challenges that impede use. In the context of the wider project, this aims to uncover new knowledge around engagement in land-management decision making and how these decisions could contribute to policy goals. It can be found here.
- The Stakeholder Advisory Group continues to play a key role supporting and advising on research design, as well as policy and practitioner relevance. Two new members have joined the group where gaps in expertise have arisen. SAG input has informed the typology of public values of land, supported case study selection across WP2, advised on a collaborative approach to working with communities, as well as provided connections to interviewees regarding long-term land management for biodiversity. The report on 2023-24 activities can be found here.
Key achievements during the first year (2022 - 2023) include:
- Recruitment and completion of baseline interviews with the Stakeholder Advisory Group. The first meeting of the Stakeholder Advisory Group was held in Edinburgh and online on 31st August 2022. An online meeting was held in December 2022 and a further hybrid meeting was held in Inverness in March 2023. Prior to the March meeting, members of the Stakeholder Advisory Group and the project teams enjoyed visits to Tornagrain and Bunloit Estate. A report on the baseline interviews can be found here.
- A technical feasibility study exploring options for the integration of land data was established, including meetings with key stakeholders such as the Scottish Government's Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate and Registers of Scotland. A social feasibility study was developed to understand community land data needs, which involved interviews with representatives of community landowners across rural Scotland. The first report for this task can be found here.
- A literature and evidence review was completed that explored international models of ownership and control of land that are different from those predominant in Scotland, and what analysis of these models might contribute to achieving land reform outcomes in Scotland. The report explores in detail seven case studies representing a range of different countries, goals, ownership and governance models. The final report is available here and a visual summary is available here.
- A literature review was undertaken to understand how members of the public value land in non-monetary ways. This literature review informs the development of valuation methods and impact evaluation methods using public questionnaires that will seek to enhance understandings of the impact of land reform on ‘new’ values of land. This report is published on Zenodo and also available on our website.
- A Stakeholder Advisory Group report has been created, based on interview questions that explored the stakeholders’ thoughts on current and future outcomes of Scottish land reform, and the key issues and knowledge gaps that should be addressed in relation to land reform. The report is available here.