Landscape context and pressures

The Tayside Bioregion stretches from the mountain glens and uplands of the west through rolling hills and fertile lowland plains around Strathmore to the Tay estuary. Home to around 416,000 people, its economy encompasses intensive arable and pastoral agriculture on the lowlands, urban services and manufacturing in Dundee and Perth, hydroelectric generation, research and innovation, and tourism.

Climate change is bringing extreme weather, altered river flows, and ecosystem stress. Biodiversity is declining — species are disappearing, rivers, wetlands, and uplands are degraded. Historical and current land and water management practices are harming soils, habitats, and water quality. And an economic model that drives environmental degradation is also reducing community resilience.

What are we doing there?

Bioregioning Tayside is a community-led initiative focused on growing local food resilience, restoring river catchments, and building connection between people and place. Commonland is in an early partnership phase, exploring how the 4 Returns Framework can support and strengthen the bioregional approach.

Key challenges and opportunities

Challenges

• Climate change impacts on weather, river flows, and ecosystems
• Biodiversity and habitat loss across rivers, wetlands, and uplands
• Unsustainable land and water management practices
• A broken economic model driving degradation and reducing resilience

Opportunities

• Strong community energy for food growing, local food systems, and place-based action
• The River Ericht catchment as a focus for integrated restoration
• Scotland’s evolving policy landscape (biodiversity strategy, Whole Farm Plans) supports landscape-scale approaches
• Connection to the emerging Scottish HLR Learning Network and other Tayside initiatives
• Bioregional mapping creating a foundation for shared understanding and collective planning

Vision for the landscape

A Tayside where community-led food systems, healthy river catchments, and thriving ecosystems are woven together — where people are reconnected to the land, local food resilience is strengthened, and the bioregion’s ecological and social health is restored for future generations.