Nature-led Conservation: Can Heritage Survive Without Nature?

At the top of Patrick Geddes’ valley section are the hills: the scene of only sparse and temporary human habitation: shepherds, walkers, windmills and dams, shooting ranges and drives, forest.

We often conceive of ‘nature’ as the opposite of ‘culture’ (be it urban or agriculture), but of course the hills, for all their apparent emptiness, are as tightly managed and as man-made as any city street. Nature is, in itself, a cultural construct. 

As such, it has heritage all of its own – histories of farming, walking, imagining, and centuries of care. This session will consider what happens when these forms of conservation meet one another, and speculates upon what might, and could, happen. 

Currently the Head of Technical Conservation at Historic Environment Scotland, Colin Tennant has worked in the heritage sector for nearly 30 years in both the public and third sectors. Having studied Geography at the University of Strathclyde before moving onto University of Dundee to study European Urban Conservation, Colin has always been interested in evaluating both landscapes and townscapes and understanding how activity in both have come together to create our historic environment.

His talk will try to demonstrate how we need to relearn the link between natural and built environments to have a sustainable future for Scotland’s heritage.

Diarmid Hearns is Head of Public Policy, Risk and Environment with the National Trust for Scotland. He leads on the Trust’s engagement with developing public policy, including in the historic environment, cultural development, and nature restoration.

Diarmid will discuss the many overlaps between nature conservation and conserving the historic environment, and how in recent years, nature conservation has moved to a more ambitious agenda of restoring nature wherever possible.

Zoe Alston is an RIAS Advanced Conservation Architect with an MSc in Architectural Conservation.

With more than 20 years of experience dedicated to the heritage sector, Zoe is a Director at Groves-Raines Architects Studios Ltd. (GRAS), leading the practice on conservation as well as staff development and education. Zoe will present GRAS’ work with WildLand on projects that touch on both building and nature conservation.

Lisa MacKenzie is a Senior Lecturer in The Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and a practising Landscape Architect.

Her work examines place based ecological dependencies and interconnections to evolve dialogical relationships with nature in the climate and biodiversity crises.