CHAIR

Francesca Osowska OBE

CEO NatureScot

Francesca has an MA in economics and subsequently worked for the civil service as an economist. After brief stints in London and Brussels, Francesca moved to Edinburgh where she joined the Scottish Office holding posts in the education and justice departments. She was appointed Head of Sport at the Scottish Executive / Government. Between 2007 and 2009, Francesca was Principal Private Secretary to the First Minister before being appointed as Director for Culture, External Affairs and Tourism. In 2010 she was appointed Director for Housing, Regeneration and the Commonwealth Games and subsequently moved to the post of Director for the Commonwealth Games and Sport. From there, Francesca moved to be Director for the Scotland Office in the UK Government in 2015, before joining NatureScot as Chief Executive in October 2017. Francesca believes a massive growth in ‘green’ jobs with be the necessary result of the climate emergency and pandemic and that an alliance of organisations and business will be needed to deliver fully a green recovery.

Sarah-Anne Munoz

Acting Head of Division of Rural Health and Wellbeing, University of the Highlands and Island

Sarah-Anne is a Health Geographer with expertise in qualitative and participatory research. She has worked in the area of rural health research for over a decade and has particular expertise in the relationships between rurality, place and wellbeing. In 2018 she was awarded the title of Reader in Rural Health and Wellbeing by the University of the Highlands and Islands. Her researched focuses on community engagement and co-production and also on the role of the outdoors and natural landscape in the promotion of health and wellbeing for those living and/or working in rural areas. Her writing draws on theory from health geography and sociology particularly relating to the spatialities of wellbeing, assemblage theory and therapeutic landscape. Her work on greenspace, social prescribing and non-pharmaceutical interventions include some of the first studies to evaluate nature-health interventions in rural areas (such as evaluation of the Mpower Programme and Community Link Workers).   

Dr Rehema White

School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews and Learning for Sustainability Scotland

Rehema works in the governance of natural resources including multi-level collaboration and the roles of community; knowledge and sustainable development; and sustainability in practice including land use. She is exploring integrative analysis and novel links across these fields gathering together academics, practitioners and policy makers in innovative ways to co-design collaborative solutions to specific sustainability challenges. She is currently exploring sustainable land use strategies in relation to the SDGs in Scotland. 

Andrew McCornick

Beef and sheep farmer, Dumfries

 Andrew is a beef and sheep farmer in south west Scotland with units in Ayrshire and Dumfries. He graduated from Aberdeen University in animal sciences and is former president of the National Farmers Union of Scotland. He sits on the board of various organisations including the Trade and Agriculture Commission, the Independent Ethics Advisory Panel with Police Scotland, Women in Agriculture and Scotlands Climate Change Assembly. Andrew has a particular interest in the health and well-being of the farming community and is a past member of Jim Humes Rural Mental Health Forum 

Lynn Cassells 
Lynbreck Croft

Lynn had been working as a ranger for the National Trust in southern England before buying the 61 hectares farm near Tomintoul, Strathspey at a height of about 350 metres. Lynbreck is now a mixed habitat croft enterprise focussed on regenerative food production using a team of native cattle, rare breed pigs, laying hens and bees. Lynbreck Croft has won several awards including Nature of Scotland 2019 Food Farming Award, the inaugural NEWBIE UK award for New Entrant Farm Business of the Year and Best Crofting Newcomer Award. Lynn is passionate about sharing their experiences and working with the local community.

Naveed Bakhsh    

Founder Boots and Beards

Naveed co-founded Boots and Beards, the Award winning Glaswegian hill walking group for Asians, and later its sister organisation Bonnie Boots for women only. Now Boots and Beards is open to everyone, irrespective of race, religion or ability but is particularly helping improve the health and well-being of Glasgow’s Asian population by giving them the opportunity to discover the Scottish mountains and offer camaraderie.

Kevin Lafferty

Health policy advisor, Scottish Forestry

Kevin Lafferty has been Forest and Land Scotland / Scottish Forestry’s health policy advisor since 2007 and is a consultant for the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum. Kevin co-authored ‘Managing woodland access and forest operations in Scotland’ for Forest Research and was instrumental in the innovative NHS Greenspace Demonstration Project at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital. He has a mentoring role in Youth Just Us – the steering group of the Youth Justice Voices project and is passionate about giving all people the opportunity to benefit from the outdoors.

artistic contributions

Each of the six conversations will include four artistic contributions, from poets, musicians and video artists, bringing a cultural perspective to each event. Each of their pieces will be a different take on the changing rural landscape around them, the climate emergency and the unstable connections between the human and the natural worlds. Some will be provocative about the way forward, some reflective of the current situation, and others just a joyous celebration of nature.

The contributors tonight are:

Karine Polwart The Lost Words Blessing

Rachel Marsh Four Seasons in a Day

Jill de Fresnes & Ruth Barrie Among the trees: the Foresters of Gosford Estate

Hamish Napier & David Russell The Woods