Over £1.76 million for Scotland’s internationally important rainforest

Fragmented, and only the size of Edinburgh (approximately 30,000 hectares), Scotland’s remaining temperate rainforest is home to a variety of rare species and valuable habitats, capturing up to one million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year and preventing flooding and soil erosion. Rare ferns, mosses, liverworts and lichens thrive, thanks to the west coast’s mild and damp weather conditions, but it faces threats from invasive non-native plants like rhododendron ponticum and grazing by deer.

The projects, from Argyll to Assynt, receiving a share of the £1,765,951 support include The Nevis Landscape Partnership’s Nevis Nature Network’s Rainforest Restoration Project. The group can now move forward with their plans for habitat restoration, community engagement and Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) removal - rhododendron ponticum being the most abundant in the Ben Nevis and Glen Nevis area (present across ~400ha of the project area).

The Woodland Trust is also among the successful awardees with three rainforest projects. The South Assynt Collaboration Project will focus on managing deer impacts and completing a study to understand more fully the social, cultural, political and economic situation in the project area. The Glen Torridon Partnership project will remove and control rhododendron, train residents and land managers in INNS removal and follow-up maintenance. Lastly, the Regenerating Craignish Rainforest Habitats project will focus on deer and INNS management, coupled with building community engagement and creating jobs.

A grant has also been awarded to Appin Community Development Trust to recruit and train six part-time squad members, a volunteer team leader and a group of volunteers who will work to eradicate INNS across two priority areas of Appin. The project will also take forward two pieces of work recommended as first steps in improving deer management locally: the collection of additional deer census data, and a deer fencing survey.

NatureScot Head of Funding, Iain Sime said: “Those who live and work within Scotland’s unique and internationally important remaining rainforest are at the heart of the vital work to restore these incredible habitats.

“This funding will support employment, help the biodiversity of the rainforest flourish and strengthen the resilience of the communities on the west coast of Scotland against the impacts of climate change."

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Mairi Gougeon said: “Scotland’s rainforest is an iconic and globally important landscape and these projects are an excellent example of how we can restore our rainforest, work closely with local communities and increase employment and voluntary opportunities, bringing a variety of benefits to these rural areas.”

Julie Stoneman from the Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest (ASR) said: “We are delighted that the Scottish Government has provided crucial funding for these projects. The ASR’s aim to restore all of Scotland’s rainforest is ambitious and challenging, and ASR organisations and rainforest communities are stepping up to the mark by developing and delivering these landscape-scale, long-term projects. We still have a long way to go, and this funding is an important step to help us get there, for the future of our internationally important rainforest and for the benefit of the people who live and work among these amazing woodlands.”

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