Community Benefits from Dorback Estate

A chance to catch up with what’s been happening, and to add your voice!  

Over the last few months, people from Oxygen Conservation, Nethy Bridge & Vicinity Community Council, Nethy Bridge Community Development Company, other community groups, local businesses, and Cairngorms Crofters and Farmers Group have had some early engagement on how the local community can directly benefit from investment in nature restoration and natural capital projects at Dorback. 

The engagement is facilitated by Annabel Davidson Knight from the Scottish Land Commission. She is a Community Benefits from Nature Adviser working in partnership with the Cairngorms National Park Authority. 

Based on discussions so far, Oxygen Conservation have produced an initial strategy for delivering social impact from Dorback, which identifies five focus areas:  

1.  Supporting rural enterprise through the Oxygen Accelerator

2. Creating local training and employment pathways

3. Strengthening local procurement opportunities

4. Developing educational and cultural engagement with the Estate

5. Enhancing local food resilience through estate-based produce

The complete document can be found here.

Dorback Impact Strategy_April 2026.pdf

Download PDF • 1.34MB

We would love to hear your feedback on the following questions:

• What are your opinions on the ideas outlined?

• Is there anything else you would like to see included?

• Would you like to be kept in touch as this work develops?

It is still early days, and Oxygen Conservation want to emphasise that the document is “not the conclusion of a conversation, but the beginning of one, and we are committed to ensuring that community benefit remains a long-term priority at Dorback.”

If you live in the Nethy Bridge area and have any views you would like to share, have any questions or would like to make any comments or suggestions, you can visit Oxygen Conservation’s stand at the Spring Gathering on 3rd May. 

You can also email your thoughts on benefits to goodpractice@landcommission.gov.scot  adding ‘Dorback’ into the title of your email; the deadline for comments is 30^th June 2026. Your response will be anonymised, unless you provide permission for your email to be shared with Oxygen Conservation and Nethy Bridge and Vicinity Community Council.

We are looking forward to hearing from you and/or seeing you at the Spring Gathering!

Other useful links: Oxygen Conservation’s Dorback webpage including contact details for the team; Nethy-Bridge-Community-Action-Plan-2023.pdf; and Scottish Land Commission guidance: Delivering Community Benefits from Land and Community benefits from natural capital investment: Route Map.