Species on the Edge – A new partnership project for coastal wildlife

With the ever-increasing pressures that our biodiversity is facing in Scotland it was not without a certain sense of relief that in June we heard that Species on the Edge (SotE), the multi-partner programme we had been developing, had been successful in its £4.2 million funding bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund.  

This programme of work, led by NatureScot, brings together the Rethink Nature partnership to conserve 35 of Scotland’s most threatened species across island and coastal habitats. The scale of the work is huge, stretching from Shetland in the north to the Solway Firth in the south and the Aberdeenshire coast in the east to the Western Isles in the west. The scale of the ambition represents the scale of the problem, with many of our coastal species hit hard by issues such as coastal erosion, climate change, habitat loss and most recently in the case of our seabirds, disease.

The short-necked oil beetle was once thought extinct before a few small populations were re-discovered. Photo credit: James Silvey.

SotE is in some ways a sequel as this level of partnership work was first pioneered in the successful Back from the Brink project which focussed efforts in England across 19 conservation projects. The third part of the trilogy is currently in development in Wales with Natur am Byth - no pressure Wales!. Over the 4-year delivery phase (due to start in January 2023) our Project Officers will be working to improve the conservation fortunes of these species across 7 landscape areas (Shetland, Orkney, North coast, Inner Hebrides, Outer Hebrides, East Coast and the Solway) through surveys, training events, habitat management and providing advice to local land managers. The unique part of the project will be that each Project Officer speaks on behalf of all the partners in the area, providing advice on birds, bumblebees and bats rather than just one group of species in isolation.

The great yellow bumblebee is now only found on some Scottish islands and a few areas of the north coast. Photo credit: Christine Hall.

SotE is also about the communities that live in these areas. Through the development period we worked hard to make sure that each landscape retained its own identify in the project with its own activities that help address the issues that we were told were important to that area. By working with the community and established groups we hope to achieve better outcomes for nature and the people that share their lives with it. 

Please keep checking our social media channels for more information on SotE as we build towards the project starting in 2023. 

Further reading

Rethink Nature partnership

Back from the Brink project

Natur am Byth project

Header image credit: Small blue butterfly by James Silvey