The Scottish Government (then the Scottish Executive) published its revised strategy for agriculture, A Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture: Next Steps in 2006, in which climate change had risen as a prominent challenge and cross-cutting issue since the publication of the original A Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture .

Action Point 14 in the Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture – Next Steps was “to establish a stakeholder group to evaluate and monitor agriculture’s response to climate change, through mitigation and adaptation(including the potential for related business opportunities).”

This Agriculture and Climate Change Group (ACCSG) was set up at the end of 2006, and included representatives from the Scottish Government, the Agriculture Strategy Implementation Group (ASIG), the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (MLURI), the Scottish Crops Research Institute (SCRI), the Scottish Agriculture College (SAC), the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), National Farmers’ Union of Scotland (NFUS), Forest Commission Scotland (FCS), and Environment Link.

The Group first met on November 21, 2006, and published its final report on May 16, 2008.

A copy of the ACCSG report can be downloaded at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/223055/0060051.pdf.

Macaulay contact: Dr Robin Matthews