Scotland: National Rural Network
Connecting Rural Scotland - Promoting Rural Growth

Issue 9: 24th August 2009

Editor’s note

Namaste! This newsletter comes to you from the International Rural Network conference which is currently taking place in Udaipur, India. Over the next five days, members of SCVO's Rural Team, including Scotland National Rural Network website editor

Norette Ferns, will be bringing you photos, blogs and articles from this important rural event.

Delegates come from 22 countries including Afghanistan, China, Italy, Australia and South Africa. I’m particularly looking forward to sessions on the globalisation of organic food and a study trip to a social enterprise producing and selling crafts made by women in villages surrounding Udaipur.

We’re two sessions in, and so far the event has been fascinating with presenters including Richard Wakeford of the OECD and an open space ‘Milan Mela’. Partnership, sharing of good practice and opportunities for rural areas have been the big issues so far. You can find out more about the event in Rural Network website goes to India, and check out Norman MacAskill’s blog postings about the event so far.

Update: Serious internet connection problems in Udaipur – we’ll do our best to add content while here – but you may have to wait until next week!

Follow us on Twitter

As well as following the movements of the SCVO Rural Team on Twitter, you can now also follow the SNRN website. It’s a good way to get regular updates on important rural issues, such as changes to Rural Priorities.

Add your own content

While we are in India, you may notice a dip in the amount of content on the website, and we probably will not be able to add articles, events etc while we are here. However, don’t forget that you can add your own content directly to the site by logging in and using the Create Content link on the right hand side. Don’t worry if it doesn’t appear straight away as it will need to be checked before publication. We should be able to do this from India, although it make take slightly longer than usual.

New featured project

We’ve only had the first session of the International Rural Conference but already the importance of partnership and sharing good practice has come to the fore. In our Featured Projects section you can find out more about successful rural development projects in Scotland – and hopefully further afield in the future too.

In our latest Featured Project, Nicky Donald tells us about the Buchan Development Partnership, one of the projects featured in the Scottish Government’s Community Empowerment Action Plan. Buchan Development Partnership is an independent, community-led organisations established in 2000 to progress community economic, social and environmental development.  Find out about their achievements, challenges and top tips for others in Featured Projects: Buchan Development Partnership.

Changes to Rural Priorities

The Scottish Government has recently announced some changes to the Rural Priorities scheme related to Forestry and Woodland options. You can find out more about them in:

• Rural Priorities: Changes to the assessment of Forestry proposals

• Rural Priorities: Woodland Improvement Grant capital items added

Funding workshops in Ayrshire

Ayrshire LEADER is holding a series of three Grant Funding workshops in September. If you have a new project idea why not make an appointment to discuss it? Find out more in LEADER funding workshops for Ayrshire.

Guide to Septic Tanks

A guide to septic tanks created by the Dee Catchment Partnership has proved so popular that SEPA has funded the national distribution of the guide. Find out more in Guide to Septic Tanks.