Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs), in collaboration with the Forth Rivers Trust, Diageo, SSEN and Perth & Kinross Council, has announced the launch of the LENs initiative in Scotland’s Leven catchment region, a project supported by FIRNS and NatureScot. The announcement was made at the Royal Highland Show.

The initiative aims to build resilience across farming communities and the agricultural supply chain in the catchment, to enhance the livelihoods of local farmers and mitigate the impacts of climate change. The scoping work for this LENs programme has been supported by SRUC, who have provided academic and advisory support.

For its inaugural trade in 2025, LENs Leven has the support of three key partners – Diageo, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution and Perth & Kinross Council, who are set to invest in 10-15 farms in the region. All see significant potential for growth in LENs and are calling for further organisations to join, so that the drive towards collaboration can scale quickly in coming years in Scotland.

The measures on offer to farmers involve a wide range of regenerative practices, including reduced cultivation systems, improving nutrient use efficiency, keeping soils covered, creating new hedgerows, and wildflower margins. These aim to deliver multiple benefits including increased soil fertility, reductions in on-farm greenhouse gas emissions, and improving habitat for farmland wildlife. 

The project should help reduce agricultural runoff into Loch Leven, Scotland’s largest lowland loch and important breeding site for waterfowl and birds.

Leven is the sixth Landscape Enterprise Network to go live, joining others in the East of England, Yorkshire, Italy, Hungary and Poland. Since 2021, LENs has delivered €24m funding to farmers and in 2024 alone, worked with 289 farms across more than 40,000 hectares.

LENs is a pioneering model that brings together businesses and stakeholders across landscapes to co-fund regenerative agriculture practices that deliver nature-based solutions such as flood mitigation, carbon storage, increased biodiversity and water stewardship.

Donald Lunan, LENs CEO, welcomed the introduction of LENs to Scotland, saying: “Leven is just the start in Scotland and comes at a point where we are witnessing a shift in momentum around the need to restore ecosystems, build climate resilience, and regenerate the natural assets on which we all depend.”

Leven is near Diageo’s key operations in Scotland, allowing for place-based collaboration with farmers, communities, and land managers on shared environmental and economic objectives.

Ewan Andrew, President of Global Supply and Chief Sustainability Officer at Diageo, said “We recognise that the future of our business is deeply intertwined with the health of the landscapes we depend on. By taking a landscape approach through LENs, we’re able to collaborate with farmers, other businesses and governments to ensure that we’re all working to the same shared goal of building resilience through regenerative agricultural practices, and we encourage other businesses to join us.”

Diageo’s investment marks a major step in aligning environmental action with business resilience in Scotland.

Councillor Richard Watters, Conveners of Perth and Kinross Council’s Climate Change and Sustainability Committee said: “The flexibility offered by the LENS model allows the Council, through the Nature Restoration Fund, to deliver on local priorities. This includes addressing water quality issues in Loch Leven and promoting biodiversity.”

Kylie Jones, Carbon & Nature Strategy Manager at SSEN Distribution, says: “With our business plan commitments for nature-based solutions (NbS), including the restoration of native woodland habitats across our licence area in the north of Scotland, LENs provides a credible route to deliver benefits like carbon removals, across the areas we operate in and beyond. This collaborative model brings together diverse interests to deliver benefits that are greater than what could be achieved individually, which is why we're looking at how LENs can play a key role in our future NbS investments.”

Amelia Heath, Director at Forth Rivers Trust, said: "LENs offers a fresh and practical model for connecting businesses, landowners, and communities around shared landscape challenges and opportunities. We believe this approach has huge potential to drive positive change not only in the Forth region but across Scotland’s wider landscapes."

Ruth Piggin, Industry Sustainability Director at the Scotch Whisky Association, said: “Caring for the land is a vital element of the Scotch Whisky industry’s commitment to sustainability, and this can only be done through collaborations across the supply chain. It’s great to see partnerships like this setting an example of how businesses and environmental organisations can work together in support of our industry-wide efforts to tackle climate change, and we look forward to seeing the results.”

To register your interest in joining Leven LENs, whether from a business or farmer perspective, please visit: www.landscapeenterprisenetworks.com

LENS at the Royal Highland Show

Leven LENs is being launched on Thursday 19 June, 14:30 BST at the Royal Highland Show. The launch will form part of a panel discussion that follows the Presidential Lunch, hosted by George Lyon, President of this year’s show. LENs CEO, Donald Lunan, will present alongside Ewan Andrew from Diageo and Professor Mark Reed of SRUC.