The spread of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in the UK in 2001 greatly affected walking, climbing and many other people involved in the tourism industry. Control measures associated with FMD led to restrictions on public access to large tracts of land and water for many months. Mountains, hills and climbing cliffs were all deemed “out of bounds”.
The last case of FMD in the UK in the 2001 outbreak was reported on 17 September. By then the tourist industry in England is believed to have lost £5 billion in revenue, resulting in the disappearance of 20-30,000 jobs. In Scotland revenue losses of £350 million were reported, with most of this in the outdoor recreation industry. Many land managers also clearly abused the use of restrictive signs to discourage public access.
Lessons do appear to have been learnt, however, and the Scottish contingency plans to deal with outbreaks of avian flu and FMD state that "the countryside will be kept open and a presumption in favour of access will be maintained.”
Ramblers Scotland continues to monitor the situation to ensure that access is not overly restricted in the case of future outbreaks.
If you’d like to see the latest contingency plans in detail, see below.
Scotland’s Foot and Mouth Disease Contingency Plan
Background
Lessons from Foot and Mouth - a paper given to the UIAA International Year of the Mountains Conference 2002 by Ramblers Scotland Director, Dave Morris:
The lessons of the Foot and Mouth disease (fmdlessons.pdf 85Kb).
For information on Avian Flu see Walkers and bird flu
