News

Mike Daniel's Churchill Fellowship

Mike is delighted and grateful that he has been awarded a Churchill Fellowship for 2026. He said: 

I’m excited to be connecting with leading experts in community hunting internationally and exploring new insights to help drive positive change. Thank you to the Churchill Fellowship for this opportunity.

I’ll be exploring innovative solutions from other countries to help Scotland and the UK develop community hunting as a means to manage deer for biodiversity, carbon and local people. How can we overcome the barriers hindering communities stewarding the land and benefiting from deer management? The barriers of land access; culture; food safety & hygiene regulations; governance; access to equipment, training and capacity. How can tensions over different deer densities on neighbouring land be overcome? What is needed for developing the community hunting scene in Scotland to deliver environmentally and socially for local communities?

Richard Williams and Lizzie Wilder Williams and I conducted a study in 2024 looking at existing schemes such as the Arkaig Community Forest, the Knoydart Foundation, The North Harris Trust, Beinn Eighe and Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserves among others, and other landowners are currently looking at how they can develop schemes.

I'm really keen to hear any key points that need to be answered, particularly around challenges, as we seek to develop community hunting to better manage our burgeoning deer populations in the absence of natural predators.

For more information see: Mike Daniels - The Churchill Fellowship

Understanding changes in demand for largescale community land acquisitions

Bobby Macaulay and Catriona Mallows from the Centre for Mountain Studies have recently published a report for the Scottish Land Commission, funded by SEFARI Gateway.

 

While the number of large-scale community land acquisitions has slowed over the last decade, this appears to be driven by a growing number of barriers. These include stretched community capacity, limited funding, complex legislation, reliance on willing sellers, and challenges in maintaining long-term local support.

The research found that community interest in acquiring and managing land remains strong, but many opportunities never progress to ownership. It also highlights practical solutions, including strengthening support networks, improving access to funding, simplifying acquisition mechanisms, and promoting alternative routes to community empowerment.

These findings provide valuable insight into what is helping, and hindering, communities seeking greater control over their local future.

Read the report here: SEFARI Fellowship to understand changes in demand for largescale community land acquisitions and identify barriers and solutions to new acquisitions

Social studies of rural communities and private sector woodland creation in south Scotland – two Masters theses from the University of Copenhagen

Two students from the University of Copenhagen were hosted by the Centre for Mountain Studies last summer (2023). They had contacted Professor Anna Lawrence to ask for support in developing their dissertation work for their Masters degrees, in response to her research on communities’ experience of engaging with new forestry planting and potential for more community benefits, particularly in the southern uplands of Scotland. Anna welcomed the opportunity for new perspectives from students with experience of continental Europe. She put them in touch with community organisations and groups in the Borders and in Galloway – regions which are much less represented in studies of community land management.

Both students chose situations where private landowners had planted, or proposed to plant, new woodland (of which the majority was conifer plantation), and to bring specific theoretical frameworks and research methods to bear on those experiences. We helped them to meet stakeholders, and then stepped aside to allow them to bring their own interpretation to what they found.

They’ve prepared summaries of their theses, which are available below.

Congratulations to Sophie and Laura on attaining their Masters degrees.

Differences in stakeholder perceptions on woodland creation in South Scotland
Sophie Zeller, MSc Nature Management, University of Copenhagen

Exploration of Community Members' Plural Values
Laura Tilli, MSc Environment and Development, University of Copenhagen