Thursday 9 January 2020

Scotland's Year of Coasts and Waters 2020


                                                                    Water of Leith, Edinburgh


Scotland's Year of Coasts and Waters 2020 offers everyone the opportunity to highlight the nature, history and culture of the beautiful and fascinating shorelines and waterways of Scotland. It also encourages people to take steps to look after these environments that are beset with problems including pollution and plastic litter.

Scotland has a long coastline and many rivers feed into our seas. Attractive walkways follow many of our rivers and coasts (including the Water of Leith Walkway and  parts of the the John Muir Walkway) offering a varity of routes for relaxing walks. 

The John Muir Trust has a great resource which is full of ideas for how to use this year to study the nature of our seas and waterways and to volunteer to help our marine and riverine habitats. This resource includes nature identification guides, advice on how to source suastainable seafood and a list of relevant organisations that are involved in looking after our seas, coasts and inland waterways. 

Scottish Natural Heritage has announced a new £150,000 fund to help community groups celebrate Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters 2020. Projects might include habitat restoration, wildlife surveys or celebrations and should leave a legacy, for example through improved skills and knowledge or the creation of a community resource. Find out more here.

Visit Scotland has a website dedicated to the Year of Coasts and Waters. This is primarily designed to boost tourism but even if you live in Scotland, there are some interesting events listed here.

If you are on social media, you can join the conversation using the hashtag #YCW2020.

2 comments:

Alison said...

Useful links, thanks. Hoping to explore lovely Scotland by kayak one day.

Jeff (Sage) said...

A year of water, sounds like my kind of year!