NEW national parks can help support viable farm businesses, according to an environmental charity.

The Scottish Environment Link (SEL) study comes after SNP rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon announced that, pending further consultation, Dumfries and Galloway will be home to Scotland’s next national park.

But many farmers oppose the move, with 93 per cent of National Farmers Union members branding plans for a new park “unacceptable,” while its vice-president Alasdair Macnab slammed existing parks as having “failed to make a positive contribution to farming and crofting.”

But the latest SEL report argues that “democratically accountable” parks advantage farmers in their area.

SEL director Deborah Long said: “Scotland has very little true wilderness, and in many cases, those special qualities are a result of the way the land has been used and worked for many generations by farmers, crofters and other land managers.

“Farmers working in both the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and The Trossachs national parks have access to the same funds as farmers elsewhere, but on top of that, additional money is made available within them for work which supports the national parks’ aims.”