Enjoying the outdoors

Enjoying the outdoors is important to many people in Scotland. It can also help deliver many social, economic and environmental benefits, from more sustainable travel and increased tourism to better health and quality of life. Encouraging participation, promoting responsible outdoor access and supporting sustainable development are key to realising these benefits.

In 2007, Scottish Natural Heritage produced Enjoying The Outdoors  , which sets out our vision and key priorities for supporting greater and wider participation in enjoying the outdoors. These priorities are that:

• the benefits from enjoying the outdoors should be shared by all of Scotland's people;
• path networks and greenspace should be developed close to home to provide communities throughout Scotland with opportunities to enjoy the outdoors;
• on-going effort is required to influence responsible use of the outdoors;
• provision for enjoying the outdoors should be well-managed, effectively integrated with other land uses and meet the needs of all interests;
• the importance of enjoying the outdoors to people's quality of life should be recognised and championed.

Further detail on these principles together with proposed SNH activity is contained separate statements on volunteering  , rangers  , paths, and places.

Key elements in our approach

• Demonstrating the links and benefits of enjoying the outdoors and taking forward common action with key partners on national and local campaigns and marketing;
• Improving the range, accessibility and targeting of information for people through the further development of the web- based provision (including SNH's website), local tool-kits and projects;
• Developing a more co-ordinated research and demonstration programme with key partners focusing on understanding barriers to enjoying the outdoors and piloting approaches to address them;
• Developing our understanding of future recreational trends and developing the survey and monitoring framework better to report on and assess progress on the key performance indicator on participation;
• Supporting the development and implementation of the Central Scotland Green network and using opportunities around regeneration, new development proposals and our input to development plans and related strategies to improve formal provision of paths, greenspaces, and managed places.

For further information contact peter.rawcliffe@snh.gov.uk 01738 458624