SAC Rural Policy Centre

* NEW! The next Rural Scotland in Focus Report 2012 will be published in Spring 2012 *

The Rural Scotland in Focus Report 2010 is the first of what will become a series of SAC reports on the state of rural Scotland.  It presents the latest evidence about the way that rural Scotland is changing and provides a commentary on specific issues, challenges and opportunities across the economic, environmental and social landscape of Scotland’s rural areas.

Our ambition for the Rural Scotland in Focus report is that it will provide a stimulus to ongoing debates on the future of rural Scotland, and inform the dialogue on policy and practice options.

The report is structured around a series of questions on topical issues:

• How is Scotland’s rural population changing?
• How resilient is the rural economy to the current economic crisis?
• What is the future for Scotland’s rural infrastructure and services?
• How are Scotland’s rural communities taking ownership of their own future?
• What impact will climate change have on rural Scotland?
• How effectively is water quality being managed?
• How well is farmland biodiversity being maintained?
• What future for upland biodiversity?

In the future, smaller ‘In Focus’ briefings will address specific policy issues as they arise.

A PDF version of the report is on this page. For a paper copy of the report, please contact the editor, Sarah Skerratt. If you would like to contribute to the debate, please post your comment below.