Rural Europe on the move English_E_version_all | Page 45

,
,
FINDING A SENSE OF PLACE
from farm to fork can play its part in
Scotland finally becoming a Good
Food Nation.
Our next challenge will be to bring
that strong island ‘sense of place’,
which Eigg now shares with so many
other small European islands, to the
next European Rural Parliament.
Having met up again with Hannes
Lorenzen at the last European Rural
Parliament steered by Vanessa
Halhead, our Scottish sustainable
rural development pioneer, our
various journeys have all now come
full circle, and we are ready to start
on another.
THE EIGG EXPERIENCE
W
IN A NUTSHELL
elcoming our European visitors back in 1997 delivered to the UK Labour Party makes multiple
was a chance to reflect on our journey to the references to the Scottish approach which has
community buy-out, to share the experience - what
worked well, what not so much - and to learn from
successfully managed to get communities involved.
Our islanders’ ‘sense of place’ - our strong
the different situations across Europe. As I have now emotional attachment to the land and our desire to
learnt is characteristic of Forum Synergies events, look after it rather than own it - was the foundation
I left with a warm feeling of shared struggle and of our buy-out strategy. This approach reframes
understanding coupled with a recognition that our whole understanding of land, not as something
each place is different, they operate under different which should be held in private hands but rather
land tenure systems, for example. One thing was as a common good, something we have a duty to
abundantly clear though: who owns land and who is maintain, for our prosperity but also for that of future
given access to it, are vital benchmarks of sustainable generations.
rural development.
The struggle for land ownership and to have
This tries to move away from an extractive
relationship to the land, where we only take what we
local voices heard in decision-making about land can, to a more reciprocal one; we care for the land
is a theme across Europe. The Scottish land tenure as it does for us. This fundamental rethinking of our
revolution, kicked off by the Eigg buy-out, has relationship to land must be a central part of our
become an example for land justice and reform European transition to more sustainable and healthier
movements across the continent. A recent report food, farming and rural future.
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