As you gaze across the landscape of the Highlands and you will see vast areas of magnificent hills and lochs that stir the imagination, but look closer at that scenery and a different picture emerges. What the tourist sees from their car windscreen, or the hillwalker admires from the summit of a mountain, is not a wilderness where nature rules, it is a scarred, desolate land, stripped of its forests and wildlife where nature clings to the edges of the landscape by its fingertips.
You can play your part in showing just how important rewilding is by signing the Rewilding Nation Charter
In this podcast, John D. Burns talks to Steve Micklewright Convenor of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance and Chief Executive of Trees for Life about the organisations that are working together across for a wilder Scotland.
Steve Mickelwright
“Climate breakdown and nature loss mean we face an unprecedented threat to our way of life and our children’s future. But it’s not too late. Scotland can lead the way as a Rewilding Nation to benefit nature, climate and people,” said Steve.
Scotland is ranked 212 out of 240 countries and territories for the state of its nature, and 11% of its species face extinction. Intensive agriculture and climate breakdown are having the biggest impacts on biodiversity, according to the authoritative State of Nature 2023 report, with other threats including non-native forestry, pollution, and introduced species.
This is undermining access to food, fresh water and clean air. It is hampering efforts to lock away carbon, and harming people’s health and wellbeing, says the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, a coalition of more than 20 organisations.
But growing numbers of communities, charities, farmers and landowners are taking action to turn Scotland’s nature crisis around – helping society cope with climate breakdown’s floods, wildlife die-offs, droughts and crop failures, while creating jobs and economic opportunities.
The Scottish Rewilding Alliance calculates 2.1% of Scotland’s land is now rewilding, with more than 150 projects covering at least 160,000 hectares, from community woodlands to landscape-scale partnerships. This includes members of Rewilding Britain’s UK-wide Rewilding Network, and the Scotland-wide Northwoods Rewilding Network, led by SCOTLAND: The Big Picture.
Rewilding 30% of Scotland can be achieved by restoring wild habitats including peatlands, native woodlands, wetlands, rivers and seas, with no loss of productive farmland. Rewilding goes hand-in-hand with nature-led farming, fishing and forestry, the Alliance says.
Produced by SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, the Why Not Scotland? film explores the Scottish landscape through the eyes of Flo Blackbourn, a young Scot from Glasgow, who sets out on a personal journey to find inspiring examples of major nature recovery around Europe.
One of the great success stories of rewilding has been the reintroduction of the beaver into Scotland.
A family of five beavers and a beaver pair have been released at two sites on Loch Beinn a Mheadhoin in the Glen Affric National Nature Reserve in the northwest Highlands. The beavers were relocated under licence from agricultural land in Tayside to an area where their natural behaviours are expected to positively benefit the landscape and biodiversity. Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), which manages the 17,604-hectare NNR, has been working in partnership with Trees for Life on the initiative since 2022, supported by Beaver Trust. The project has included three phases of extensive consultations with local communities and land managers.
FLS North Region Manager, Alex Mcleod, said: “Beavers being translocated to Glen Affric is the culmination of a long, exacting and thorough process for FLS and Trees for Life. Fully engaging with the local Affric communities, including through a detailed consultation process, has been crucial in making sure that all voices were heard.
“This high degree of local consultation has helped put in place processes to discuss any necessary mitigation, and to address concerns raised by those not in favour of beaver introductions. We are establishing a group to oversee ongoing monitoring to inform management decisions in the months and years to come, and I would hope that the beavers eventually become an integral and unremarked part of Glen Affric.”
Steve said: “As we saw the beavers released into the loch, we were watching a moment of wildlife history – offering hope for tackling the nature and climate emergencies, and a better future for biodiversity and people.“
“We’re proud to have worked with FLS on this community-focused initiative. FLS has undertaken vital habitat restoration work in Glen Affric over many years and shown real leadership in nature restoration by reintroducing this important habitat-creating, biodiversity-boosting, flood-preventing animal.”
