Our relationship with nature and climate

We have shaped Scotland's landscapes, flora and fauna, and they in turn have shaped, fed, and inspired us. We depend on these natural services to power, feed, fuel and build our economy and lifestyles. Conversely our nature and landscapes, as we know them, depend on the way we run our economy and live our lives to maintain the spaces and climatic conditions that allow them to thrive.

Recently, human-induced climate change has become a product of how we interact with nature - a lop-sided partnership that has resulted from ways of living that our limited natural resources cannot support indefinitely. Climate change now presents the single greatest threat to our nature and landscapes, and it also threatens our lifestyles, our economy and our culture.

How can we respond to climate change in a way that helps our nature, landscapes and people prosper?

We enjoy the obvious, tangible benefits and pleasures of visible wildlife and landscapes, and the crops and animals we farm. But there is a whole range of other goods and services our ecosystems provide us with that are no less important despite their invisibility. These 'services' range from water and air purification, through to crop pollination by bees and other insects, to flood alleviation and erosion control, to name but a few. They are provided entirely free of charge yet their value is enormous.