Celebrating Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters

Scotland is home to a vast range of waters, from breath-taking coastline, lochs and rivers, to burns and wetlands. Our waters are the lifeblood for our Nature and shape our land.

With the current twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, what can we do to restore our aquatic environments and protect our irreplaceable species from these threats?

Our online seminar “Celebrating Scotland’s year of coasts and waters” in 2021, showcased some of the environmental projects within North East Scotland which were shaping our waters.  From restoring urban burns, tackling ocean plastic pollution, saving our salmon to future-proofing our rivers against climate change effects – there is a lot of great work going on!

You can watch the full seminar below. You will discover a range of environmental projects. Organisations include East Grampian Coastal Partnership, Aberdeen City Council, the River Dee Trust and the Spey Catchment Initiative.  Alongside these projects our very own chair Roger Owen provided insight into what climate change effects would look like for our rivers and lochs.

Mairi Gougeon (MSP for Angus North & Mearns and Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands) also kindly provided an introduction to the seminar and highlighted actions that the Scottish Government are taking to help tackle biodiversity loss and climate change.

As well as being embedded below, the video is available on Vimeo.

Celebrating Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters – 2021

The line-up order for speakers changed slightly from from the advertised poster. Speakers appear on the video as follows:

(00:00:00 – 00:05:52) Introduction – Alex Stuart – Former Coordinator for North East Scotland Biodiversity Partnership

———————————————————————————————————–

(00:05:52 – 00:10:48) Welcome from Mairi Gougeon MSP

———————————————————————————————————–

(00:12:05- 00:31:30) Ian Hay – Project Manager at EGCP – EGCP Plans and Actions

———————————————————————————————————–

(00:31:40- 00:50:05) Roger Owen – Chair of NESBiP & local Scottish Wildlife Trust group,  Coordinator Scottish Freshwater Group Citizen Science – Adapting to Climate Change Impacts on Scottish Rivers and Lochs

———————————————————————————————————–

(00:50:28- 01:10:45) Al Reeve – Biologist at River Dee Trust – Fish Grow on Trees

———————————————————————————————————–

(01:10:57- 01:30:57) Penny Lawson – Project Officer at Spey Catchment Initiative – Protecting and Enhancing Biodiversity in the Spey Catchment

———————————————————————————————————–

(01:30:58- 01:51:08) Ian Talboys – recently retired Countryside Officer for Aberdeen City Council – Working Wetlands

———————————————————————————————————–

(01:51:24 – 02:06:54) Final Q+A’s & Round up from Alex Stuart

Feeling inspired and want to help nature?

• Learn how to get involved with your local biodiversity: Get Involved
• Read about more project within North East Scotland: Projects
• Join the Climate Action Hubs in your local area: Community Climate Action hubs of North East Scotland