A booklet giving advice and guidance on how to involve young people who live in rural areas in international projects has just been published.

Roll out the red carpet for the doggy starlets of today.......The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute has been working with the Cairngorms Outdoor Access Forum to explore the issues and attitudes around dogs and access to the countryside.

The government has published details of the cash rewards available to householders and communities who install low carbon electricity generating technologies, such as wine turbines and solar panels.

It looks like the Crofters bull hire scheme is set to continue for now, although its long-term future remains unclear.  Meanwhile the Scottish Government has published guidance on the electronic tagging of sheep, including a package of support for farmers.

Roseanna Cunningham MSP met with representatives of the community land sector this week and urged communities to register an interest in land to improve their chances of benfitting from the land reform legislation.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is launching a new programme of support for rural communities.

Residents on the island of Bute have voted in favour of a community buy-out of 2,000 acres of land at the northern end of the island. 

A few snippets of funding information for those on the search for cash....

The Woodland Crofts section of the Community Land Unit at Highlands and Islands Enterprise have just published guidance for community landowners on rural housing bodies and rural housing burdens.

It might not be a combination that often springs to mind, but an academic paper has been published recently which looks at the influence of religious factors on modern Scottish land reform.

Recognising the need for many community groups and social enterprises to diversify into activities that will bring in both income and tourists, the Scottish Social Enterprise Academy is running a course to help develop leaders in the adventure tourism industry.

Scottish Environment Link have published a report entitled 'Living with the land', which offers suggestions and thoughts for Scotland's Sustainable Land Use Strategy, due to be produced by 2011.  The Scottish Government is also organising a series of discussion workshops as part of the process of preparing the strategy.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), home of the Community Land Unit, are planning to redesign their website.  

An extensive set of training materials to help with managing community assets, is now available to registered members of SCotLaNd, thanks to funding provided by the Community Land Unit at HIE.

The West Harris Crofting Trust will formally take control of three crofting estates in the west of the island today.

Funding of £96.6 million was awarded in the most recent round of the Rural Priorities fund, whilst application deadlines have been extended slightly in the spring round to take account of the bad weather.

The Brian Pack inquiry into the future of agricultural funding in Scotland has published its interim report.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) have launched a consultation to gather people's views on the creation of additional Special Protection Areas (SPAs) to protect the golden eagle in Scotland.

There's two new opportunities to learn more about crofting this month with the start of the Crofting Induction courses and a new Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) briefing on the Crofting Reform bill.

So far 2010 hasn't been overly endowed with good news stories, so it's nice to hear of the mystery purchase of a new van for the Uig community shop.