We are delighted to announce the appointment of Megan MacInnes as the new chair of Community Land Scotland.

Megan, an Applecross-based community leader, spent seven years based in Southeast Asia, as part of 25 years of land reform experience in Scotland and internationally. She believes the vast range of experience will help her in the new role.

‘I began my career doing very grass-roots work with indigenous groups in North-east Cambodia’, she says. ‘The importance of having secure tenure of land and natural resources was huge for these communities, their livelihoods, and cultural heritage. The same is very true for many communities in urban and rural areas across Scotland.’

Megan was brought up on a croft in Skye. As well as her years in Cambodia, she worked with the international human rights and environmental NGO, Global Witness, for 11 years.

‘While at Global Witness, I spent a lot of my time working with the human rights and land reform frameworks of the United Nations, with international companies and their investors and with corporate governance regulations, trying to prevent investments that caused land grabs and human rights violations.’

Megan held the post of Commissioner for the Scottish Land Commission for six years, where she took a leading role on the connection between land reform and human rights. Since 2021, she has been the Local Development Manager for the Applecross Community Company, the development trust on the Applecross peninsula. 

Megan says, ‘Being able to acquire land and assets in Applecross has been absolutely key to our ability to deliver community benefit activities and generate revenues that can then be turned back into investments for Applecross. We wouldn’t have been able to do any of that If we didn’t own the land and didn’t own the buildings.’ She continues. ‘Communities across rural and urban Scotland are working to bring land and assets under community control and generate local benefit. Despite the right to buy, this is not easy and Community Land Scotland plays an essential role supporting communities and raising their voices and experience within national policy and legislative circles.’

As well as prioritising good communication with community groups around the country, Megan says she would prioritise housing issues, depopulation, community benefits and further legislative reform to address weaknesses in the Current Land Reform (Scotland) Act.

‘At the end of the day, despite the obvious differences, as pressure on land everywhere grows, the parallels between land reform in Scotland and many other countries increases. I hope that my experience in community land development will help me make a positive contribution to the work of Community Land Scotland.’

Megan takes the Chair at Community Land Scotland after Ailsa Raeburn stepped down from the role.

‘Ailsa was a fantastic chair. She was inspirational and motivated and I am honoured to step in and help lead Community Land Scotland at a time of new challenges and opportunities.’