FWAG, a once familiar name in rural Scotland, has been given a new lease of life by a group of independent farm conservation advisers.

The original Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group was run as a charity by a network of employed advisers until it folded in 2009. Its new iteration – the Scottish Farming and Wildlife Advisers’ Group – is a very different animal, its organisers have insisted.

In essence, it is still a network of conservation specialists, but all are fully independent consultants running their own businesses, from Shetland to Dumfries, coming together to form an association aimed at promoting the farm conservation message.

The chairman of this new Scottish FWAG, Richard Lockett, runs his own consultancy business as well as a small-scale farming operation near Dingwall. He stressed that things have moved on since the original FWAG disappeared.

“It was a great shame when FWAG went under, but times have changed," said Mr Lockett. "The need for skilled conservation advice remains but how that happens now is totally different. Scottish FWAG members today run their own businesses and have the flexibility to decide what best works for them and the needs of their area, whether it be farms, estates, crofts, nature reserves or smallholdings.”

The new organisation currently has 12 members covering most of Scotland, all professionally accredited to a high standard and working as independent consultants helping land managers improve the natural environment.

Mr Lockett insisted that the need for the new organisation was as strong as ever: “Farming and conservation in Scotland are completely interwoven. Many of the issues we face today – biodiversity loss, water quality, climate change, flood management – are directly linked to land use decisions.

"The need for trusted, independent expertise is as great today as when the original FWAG was formed. Some of the old FWAG messages are accepted as mainstream, but many new and some old challenges remain.”

Mr Lockett said that the Scottish FWAG association was a good arrangement for the advisers too: “Being members of an umbrella association means that advisers can come together to share knowledge and skills with each other whilst remaining fully independent. We are also able to provide an independent voice when it comes to policy decisions, for example helping policy makers improve Scottish agri-environment scheme design.”

He was also clear about the challenges that lie ahead: “It would be great to have more adviser members, particularly in the areas where we don’t currently have coverage. Being a farm conservation adviser is a fairly niche profession. There aren’t many of us and I would love it if there were more," he admitted.

"We’re looking at ways of bringing in new blood and providing training opportunities. We also want to evolve as an organisation and are looking at membership/supporter packages for farmers.”

The Scottish FWAG web-site can be found at www.scotfwag.org.uk