{"id":25190,"date":"2021-03-17T08:40:27","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T08:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/?p=25190"},"modified":"2021-03-17T08:52:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T08:52:36","slug":"call-for-government-champion-to-capitalise-on-rising-numbers-outdoors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/call-for-government-champion-to-capitalise-on-rising-numbers-outdoors\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for government champion to capitalise on rising numbers outdoors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A dozen&nbsp;outdoor&nbsp;organisations are together calling for a new \u2018Outdoor&nbsp;Recreation Champion\u2019 role to be created within the Scottish Government, to ensure that&nbsp;<em>everyone<\/em>&nbsp;in society benefits from being active in nature.&nbsp;<br><br>The new cross-departmental role is one of several innovative ideas within a joint&nbsp;manifesto&nbsp;published today by Scottish&nbsp;Outdoor&nbsp;Recreation Alliance (SORA), aimed at supporting the booming demand for the&nbsp;outdoors.<br><br>SORA\u2019s&nbsp;Manifesto&nbsp;for the&nbsp;Outdoors&nbsp;also calls for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A guarantee that every primary and secondary school pupil has at least one week away at an&nbsp;outdoor&nbsp;centre<\/li><li>Long-term strategic investment in infrastructure such as facilities, ranger services, education and skills training<\/li><li>More support for BAME communities and people in deprived areas to engage with the&nbsp;outdoors<\/li><li>The creation of a standalone fund for&nbsp;outdoor&nbsp;recreation, including paths and signage.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The publication of the&nbsp;manifesto&nbsp;before the Holyrood elections in May is timely given a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/tfn.scot\/news\/research-shows-scots-priorities-for-action-post-pandemic?utm_source=goodmoves&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=footer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">major independent survey<\/a>&nbsp;published this month by the David Hume Institute (DHI) showed 36% of people in Scotland spent more time outside in nature last year than before, with 58% of people in Scotland intending to spend more time outside in future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SORA member Helen Todd, who is Ramblers Scotland\u2019s policy manager, said that recruiting an&nbsp;Outdoor&nbsp;Recreation Champion would help all government departments \u2013 from health and tourism to the economy and equalities \u2013 capitalise on the surge in&nbsp;outdoor&nbsp;recreation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Young-group-in-the-Arrochar-alps-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Young-group-in-the-Arrochar-alps-800x600.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Young-group-in-the-Arrochar-alps-320x240.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Young-group-in-the-Arrochar-alps-200x150.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Young-group-in-the-Arrochar-alps.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption>Young group in the Arrochar alps<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ms Todd said: \u201cWe need an&nbsp;Outdoor&nbsp;Recreation Champion working across government departments to ensure that everyone throughout Scotland shares the benefits \u2013 and pleasure \u2013 of being active in the natural environment.<br><br>\u201cScotland has been great at marketing our amazing scenery and&nbsp;outdoor&nbsp;activities \u2013 but this hasn\u2019t been matched by investment. Indeed, the&nbsp;Scottish Government\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ramblers.org.uk\/news\/latest-news\/2020\/november\/survey-reveals-alarming-cuts-to-outdoor-access-jobs-in-scotland.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">funding for access<\/a>&nbsp;has flatlined for more than a decade at \u00a38.1million a year.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSORA\u2019s&nbsp;Manifesto&nbsp;for the&nbsp;Outdoors&nbsp;offers a hopeful and practical vision of a more inclusive&nbsp;outdoors&nbsp;\u2013 which will benefit the economy, environment, local communities and everyone\u2019s health and wellbeing, as part of a green recovery from Covid.\u201d<br><br>The&nbsp;manifesto&nbsp;was developed by Ramblers Scotland, British Horse Society, Cycling UK in Scotland, Mountaineering Scotland, ScotWays and Scottish Canoe Association. It is also supported by The Outward Bound Trust, Scottish Adventure Activities Forum, Scottish Countryside Rangers Association, Scottish Wild Land Group, HorseScotland and Scottish Orienteering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can download the full&nbsp;manifesto&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ramblers.org.uk\/SORAmanifesto\" target=\"_blank\">www.ramblers.org.uk\/SORAmanifesto<\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A dozen&nbsp;outdoor&nbsp;organisations are together calling for a new \u2018Outdoor&nbsp;Recreation Champion\u2019 role to be created within the Scottish Government, to ensure that&nbsp;everyone&nbsp;in society benefits from being active in nature.&nbsp; The new cross-departmental role is one of several innovative ideas within a joint&nbsp;manifesto&nbsp;published today by Scottish&nbsp;Outdoor&nbsp;Recreation Alliance (SORA), aimed at supporting the booming demand for the&nbsp;outdoors. SORA\u2019s&nbsp;Manifesto&nbsp;for the&nbsp;Outdoors&nbsp;also calls for: A guarantee that every primary and secondary school pupil has at least one week away at an&nbsp;outdoor&nbsp;centre Long-term strategic investment in infrastructure such as facilities, ranger services, education and skills training More support for BAME communities and people in deprived areas to<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/call-for-government-champion-to-capitalise-on-rising-numbers-outdoors\/\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more &#8250;<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-walking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25190"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25195,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25190\/revisions\/25195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}