Argyll Peninsula Prepped to Save Scotland's Ancient Rainforest
PR & communications officer - Scotland
The local community and conservationists hope to join forces to revive ancient woodland on Argyll’s Craignish peninsula, following completion of a scoping project to gather information and develop plans for landscape scale restoration.
The project area covers a defendable peninsula of over 2500ha, and is home to important remnants of Scotland’s ancient rainforest and a mosaic of other important semi-natural habitats – some of the rarest ecosystems anywhere on earth. With sympathetic land management, this project offers an opportunity for successful restoration of rainforest habitats.
The aims of the Regenerating Craignish Rainforest Habitats Project are to control grazing pressure from deer, remove invasive non-native species (INNS) such as Rhododendron ponticum, and connect up the ancient woodland remnants.
Work over the last seven months has included ground surveys of rhododendron cover, assessments of deer numbers, peatland survey and community engagement. Landowners have been contacted and the project vision has been well received by local communities.
Regenerating Craignish Rainforest Habitats is led by Woodland Trust Scotland, working alongside Native Woods Co-operative. The project is supported by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot. Its grant of £66,222 covered most of the £73,000 costs with the balance coming from charitable trust donations.
Native Woodlands Cooperative’s Gordon Gray Stephens said: “Only a fraction of Scotland’s rainforest remains, scattered in pockets along the west coast. It is in desperate need of restoration and protection. The ancient woodland remnants are fragmented, and many are unable to regenerate. Craignish is particularly important and has been recognised as one of the Scottish Government’s nine priority areas for rainforest restoration in a recently published report.
"The development phase now completed allows us to fully understand the job that needs to be done. We have scoped out the extent of the threat and assessed the opportunities to regenerate Craignish’s rainforest habitats, in collaboration with supportive land managers."
Funding is now being sought for the delivery phase with costs estimated to be over £1,000,000.
For further information contact George Anderson on 07770 700631.
About the Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust was established in 1972 and is now the UK's largest woodland conservation charity, with more than 500,000 members and supporters.
With a vision of a world where woods and trees thrive for people and nature, today the Trust owns and cares for more than 1,000 woodland sites, covering around 33,000 hectares.
The Woodland Trust has three key aims:
- protecting the UK's rare, unique and irreplaceable ancient woodland
- restoring damaged ancient woodland, nurturing precious pieces of our natural heritage back to life
- establishing new native trees and woods to create healthy, resilient landscapes for people and wildlife.
Access to all Woodland Trust woods is free so everyone can experience the physical and mental benefits of trees.