Community Group: Tiree Community Development Trust

Researcher: Dr Leslie Mabon, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Systems (Open University)

Location: Isle of Tiree, Inner Hebrides

Exploring ways to work with nature to adapt to the impacts of climate change in Tiree, with a focus on coastal erosion

Brodie Sim, Community lead at Tiree Community Development Trust, said: 

The crofting community are probably over consulted and over worked, and to have had them sat around a table for two hours to talk about this subject was very heartening - It quickly became clear how knowledgeable everyone is on the environment, from their own lived experience of being a resident in Tiree. Our community are the experts, Tiree residents have witnessed first-hand over the years how our island is being impacted by climate change, and people are very connected to the environment here.

Photographer: Jack Lockhart

About the project

Tiree Community Development Trust has a focus on the social and economic regeneration of the island and works with local people to engage them in these activities. There has been significant coastal erosion in Tiree in recent years. This project gave the Trust the opportunity to explore potential nature-based solutions and adaptation measures to address this, with a particular focus on working with local crofting communities -- a system of landholding often passed on through multiple generations, which is unique to Scotland, and is an integral part of life in the Highlands & Islands and within Gaelic culture.

Community-researcher partnership

The group worked with environmental systems researcher Leslie Mabon (Open University) to engage the local community in climate change discussions and to co-develop a range of actions to take forward. The group explored specific actions including better ditching methods and planting marram grass which can stop erosion. A particular feature of this project was supporting local crofters to take positive actions and build on what they were already doing, acknowledging the sustainable practices which exist within traditional crofting culture.

Research impacts

Recognising local sensitivities around climate change and its impact, the project built on the positive activities to tackle climate change by local crofters rather than focusing on negatives. Without crofting, for example, the world-renowned machair – the biodiverse grassy land along the shore – would not have developed into the rich ecosystem it is today.

This style of engagement – building on what already happens locally - resulted in the project receiving a greater level of engagement from the local community than had been expected. The Trust identified an element of distrust around both research and climate change action as a result of previous instances of top-down climate-related consultation in the area.

In this project, the research was led by the Trust, and with support from the researcher partner asked the community “does this feel like it reflects what’s happening?”, rather than imposing solutions on them. It was therefore able to get people ‘onside’ and willingly contribute with their own experiences. As a result, a wide range of positive actions have been identified which can be utilised more widely to mitigate against – and adapt to – climate change across the island in the future.

Researcher Dr Leslie Mabon reflected that being able to spend time with the community and understand the challenges, including over-consultation and over-engagement, was crucial in shaping the research project design, which he feels will help inform future climate action and research.

Dr Leslie Mabon, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Systems (Open University), said:

Climate change is a real risk so we want to involve communities but have learned how to do this in the right way.

Credit: Kirsty Currie