You are here > Home > Find Out More:

The future of RIGS in Scotland

In the past, SNH financially supported a part time Scottish RIGS Officer for a two year period, during which time a draft National RIGS Strategy for Scotland was written and plans were begun for the development of a Scottish RIGS Association. The Scottish RIGS Officer also developed Links to Biodiversity and with the assistance of COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities), a planning sector guidance note on Geodiversity was produced for the Scottish Biodiversity Group (hosted in the Scottish Executive).

This work respresents the beginning of the process of having the conservation and managment needs of RIGS realised and addressed. However, as yet the Strategy has still to be completed and adopted, and the only national association for RIGS in Scotland (unlike Wales) is UKRIGS.

More recently RIGS groups have been involved in Local Biodiversity Action Plans (LBAP) work in east central Scotland. The Scottish Wildlife Trust has recently put in place a sympathetic national policy on geodiversity in the appendices of which were included both the guidance note and the draft Scottish RIGS Strategy. Again in central Scotland a number of councils have policies about the protection of RIGS in both their Structure and Local Plans.

Despite these successes to date, the RIGS initiative in Scotland has to be driven forward and greatly expanded. There is the need to:

1. encourage the foundation of groups throughout Scotland;
2. develop a Scottish RIGS Association;
3. complete the National RIGS strategy for Scotland;
4. have country-wide recognition of RIGS in Structure and Local Plans
5. have RIGS built into Council Environmental Network Strategies and Local Community Planning as in Fife; and
6. seek resources to fund a Scottish RIGS Project Officer.
   

If RIGS groups find more helpers and new groups are founded, then perhaps Scotland's unprotected regionally important sites may be properly managed and continue to be used for educational and recreational purposes, rather than being ruined by neglect or by inconsiderate development.