During Spring and Summer 2019, the Islands Revival project collected evidence and examples of population turnaround through a series of blog posts from island communities. Among these are posts from Colonsay, Eigg, Galson Estate in Lewis, Isle of Kerrera, Westray, Isle of Bute and many more, all showing a range of things that communities can do to tackle population decline.
The aim of the project was to raise the profile of “green shoots” of demographic recovery by gathering observations and evidence of positive population change from across the Scottish islands and beyond. By doing so, it aimed to identify ways to support revival of the islands in the future, through policy and practice.
Islands Revival was a knowledge exchange project with partners from The James Hutton Institute, CoDeL, SRUC and Community Land Scotland, and was funded by the Scottish Government-funded SEFARI Responsive Opportunity Initiative. SIF was a member of the projects Third Sector and Policy Reference Group.
All the blog posts are available on the Islands Revival website and while this project has closed, Research on the Edge, run by researchers in the Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Group at The James Hutton Institute and supported by SEFARI Flexible Funding, has recently been set up to keep building on this work.