Rising to the rural land use challenge

A discussion paper by the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (RELU), a multidisciplinary, Research Councils-funded research project, is now out for consultation and is inviting comments from policy-makers, researchers and other interested stakeholders around three main strategic policy questions:

• How do we achieve multiple objectives from land and water?
• How do we achieve more democratic and accountable decisions?
• How can our use of land and water help tackle climate change?

RELU welcome any feedback you may have on some or all of these questions. They are also interested in any comments on (a) research gaps in this field and (b) implications posed for/by the devolved or regional contexts. All contributions will be fed into a final report, and discussed further with policy makers.

We make multiple and complex demands on land and water in the UK today. Climate change is now complicating the picture and global markets are playing their part. Much of the research being carried out within RELU is investigating aspects of land and water use and land use policy analysts Vicki Swales and Alan Woods have been identifying the challenges for policy makers arising from RELU research.

Please e-mail your contributions to relu@ncl.ac.uk by 8 October 2008.