Scotland: National Rural NetworkPlease provide any other comments that you would like to make about any aspect of 'Speak Up for Rural Scotland'.
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Comments
The rural economy is demeened by these tick box consultations
Rurally, Scotland is immensely diverse and the governments approach to rural issues is regularly naive and lacking any sort of lateral thinking.
Consider the Island of Mull alone as just a fragment of rural Scotland. It has more biodiversity in the one place than anywhere else in Britain. Probably the most diverse climate. 300 miles of coastline alone. We are surrounded by 200 other islands and islets. It has the biggest concentration of golden eagles per acre in the whole world, along with Skye. Tourism accounts for something like 85% of cash coming into Argyll and this figure is probably higher for Mull and yet there isn't an ounce of recognition by government about this and almost nil infrastructure for visitors.
Despite the simply massive potential for Ecotourism in the whole of the Hebridean Islands absolutely no one is guiding the tourism effort here. With community councils, community trusts, chambers of commerce and numerous other community groups etc seemingly pretending that tourism is not the engine of the entire economy !!
It isn't Scotland's dirty black gold that is the future of the rural economy but its green and very sustainable gold, in its simply spectacular natural environment and the sooner ministers get real and grasp this the sooner our own rural economy can stride forward.
There is only one 'plan A' for The Hebridean Islands but I see no boxes to tick in this consultation. The only 'plan A' is National Park status. Which the people of Mull supported in their confidential 'Island Voices Survey' and of course the community of Harris have also voiced their support for park status. In such environmentally aware times and increasingly so, NOTHING ELSE has the power to create wealth and raise the green image of this area of Scotland. Does it really take even a scrap of lateral thinking to see that flying the Ecotourism and National Park flag over these beautiful islands would be great for all here.
Other parts of rural Scotland have their own problems but the above is our answer.