Practical advice and early support for anyone with a land-related concern
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Our Good Practice Team provides impartial, practical advice on the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement, Scotland’s framework for good practice.
We also support landowners in applying these principles through our good practice protocols.
If you’re experiencing issues around communication, transparency, decision-making, stewardship or community engagement, we can help you understand what good practice looks like and what your options may be.
You can speak directly to one of our advisers for early guidance, a sense-check, or support in understanding expectations around transparency, communication, participation and responsible land management.
We can help you with questions about:
If you’re dealing with a sensitive situation, we can also take further steps such as contacting relevant parties, offering guidance on good practice, or helping support dialogue where relationships feel strained.
“People come to us with very real concerns. My aim is to listen, be honest, and give practical advice that helps all parties deal with the situation with more confidence.”
Impartial advice
We listen, ask questions, and help you understand options without judgement.
A supportive, informal conversation
You don’t need to prepare anything, just tell us what’s happening in your own words.
Clear next steps
If something needs to be followed up, we’ll explain if and how we can help.
“People often worry that they’re coming to us too early, but early conversations are where we can make the biggest difference.”
We support people to understand good practice, strengthen relationships, and resolve concerns early. We don’t take sides or act as a formal mediator, a conversation with us can help you understand expectations, explore options, and find the next step with confidence.
Sarah Madden
Head of Practice and Advice
Sarah is Head of Practice and Advice at the Commission, where she oversees the Good Practice Programme and the organisation’s tenant farming work. In this role, she guides efforts to help private, community and public landowners manage land in line with the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement, and she plays a key part in supporting the statutory functions of the Tenant Farming Commissioner. Her work also involves helping landowners and communities secure benefits from a wide range of natural capital projects. Sarah brings experience from across land-based business, forestry policy, community development and political advocacy.
Gemma Campbell
Land Rights and Responsibilities Manager
Gemma’s work focusses on helping people to own, use and manage land responsibly in line with the principles of the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement. She manages a programme of engagement, guidance, casework, and advice that supports key stakeholders across all sectors to strengthen their adoption of good practice principles in their strategy and delivery. She is particularly interested in community engagement, community ownership, Community Wealth Building, and Common Good. Gemma is a member of the KLTR’s Ownerless Property Transfer Scheme Panel and of Forestry and Land Scotland’s Community Asset Transfer Scheme Panel.
Karen Grant
Good Practice Adviser
As a Good Practice Adviser, Karen works to help embed principles of fairness, transparency, balance and opportunity into land ownership, management and use in Scotland. This includes offering support in the form of training, advice and guidance, and working with landowners and managers in the private, public and community sectors, to increase understanding and alignment with the principles of the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement. Karen has a background in ecology, agriculture, forest issues and climate change.
Uwe Stoneman
Good Practice Adviser
Uwe’s role as a Good Practice Adviser is to promote and support good practice in Landownership across Scotland. This often means working directly with landowners and communities, as part of a transparent, fair, and constructive casework service. In his role, Uwe deals with a wide variety of cases, issues and opportunities, including community benefits from natural capital investment. Originally from Germany, Uwe has lived and worked in Scotland most of his life. He has a background in land management, community engagement, nature conservation and restoration.
Annabel Davidson-Knight
Community Benefits from Nature Adviser
As a Community Benefits from Nature Adviser, Annabel has a particular focus on support to embed a range of benefits for communities local to nature restoration projects. Working in partnership with the Cairngorms National Park Authority to explore opportunities arising from investment in natural capital, Annabel works with land managers and communities across the Park to identify and agree benefits as well as developing national best practice alongside a network of advisers through the Natural Capital Partnership Project with Community Land Scotland. Annabel has a background in the third sector, with a focus on place-based systems change, building multi-stakeholder partnerships and facilitating community action, most recently from within conservation organisations supporting people to actively shape a more equitable form of rural development in the face of climate and biodiversity threats.
“Most people come to us because they want to do the right thing, they just need help understanding what good practice looks like in their situation.”
If you’d like to discuss your situation in more detail, you can speak to one of our advisers.
There are 3 main ways to get in touch:
We handle all conversations sensitively. However, as a public body, we are subject to Freedom of Information legislation. You can read more about how we handle personal information in our casework privacy policy.
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