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Scotland's Native Trees and Shrubs
CEL:LFN and biodiversity
'Biodiversity is the variety of life. If we allow this variety to decline, our quality of life will also decline. We would lose a major part of our identity and a primary reason why people enjoy living, working and visiting Scotland'.
CEL:LFN, 1998 Scottish Executive Development Department
The Scottish Executive landscape policy advocates an holistic approach. It recognises that landscape contains a living world of immense complexity and interdependent relationships. As with a clock or a car they are easier to repair if we are equipped with an understanding of how they work. Ecology teaches us how landscape and the living world works and is consequently an integral and important part of the policy. If the CEL:LFN procedure is applied thoughtfully and with imagination the outcome will be high quality landscape design that encourages biodiversity. However, this incidental contribution to biodiversity is insufficient alone to meet the government commitments (made at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit) to halt worldwide loss of animal and plant species and genetic resources. A strategic and focused approach is necessary. With this in mind The Scottish Executive has produced a draft Trunk Road Biodiversity Action Plan for consultation.
Roadsides are becoming increasingly important for nature conservation. Dead and decaying trees are not always dangerous. In relatively inaccessible areas such as land within large interchanges or 'off-site' woodlands they should be allowed to decay as nature intended - providing and enriching life for others. The holes in this ash tree have been commandeered by a family of chattering jackdaws.
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