An event last weekend brought together landowners, people living and working in Morvern, and organisations committed to saving Scotland’s rainforest. RSPB Scotland Director Anne McCall tells us more.
Big changes rarely come from single events or individuals. When it comes to restoring nature, progress is more usually the product of lots of actions by many people.
This weekend, I felt I was witnessing something that really summed that up. RSPB Scotland, with the support of some wonderful partners, brought together a diverse group of people who have one key thing in common – a commitment to saving Scotland's rainforest. It was a particularly timely event given that the Wild Isles episode on Woodlands aired on Sunday evening, and did such a fantastic job of showcasing this amazing habitat.
These woodlands, which hug Scotland’s west coast, are spectacularly biodiverse, but they are also in trouble: fragmented, over-browsed, threatened by invasive plants (like rhododendron), and facing the threat of climate change.
RSPB Scotland’s newest reserve at Glencripesdale on the Morvern peninsula has some of the best surviving rainforest in the country, which is why we acquired it. Our goal is to renew and restore this woodland, but for it to thrive it must be linked to a wider restoration of this special habitat.
That's why we wanted to bring together landowners, people living and working in Morvern, and organisations committed to saving the rainforest. We spent an inspirational couple of days visiting the forest and sitting down together to share our hopes for the future.
Morvern occupies a special position that makes it well-suited to a project aimed at making significant progress in protecting, restoring and expanding Scotlands rainforest. It's a peninsula, and only a thin sliver of land connects it to the mainland. That means it should be harder for invasive species like rhododendron to return after work is done to remove them.
The area is also in the heart of the rainforest zone and has key fragments of the habitat already. But it's not the geography that really makes it special. It's the people. A community consultation established that restoring the rainforest was a key priority for the people living there. There are also many landowners committed to doing what they can to help.
Morvern is also home to amazing people who helped establish techniques to remove rhododendron that are now used across Scotland and beyond. That's why RSPB Scotland has established the Morvern Rainforest Project. We want to support the people who are already working to make a difference in their home.
It's early days but the project aims to establish a team who can work across the area eradicating rhododendron. A tree nursery will support expanding the forest with seeds and saplings sourced to ensure the genetic integrity of the habitat.
We also hope that working with the community will help bring new ways of working that continue Morvern's established place as a home to innovation and real-world change.
One note of caution. None of this is free. Some funding to begin the project development has come from a range of sources, including the Nature Restoration Fund administered by NatureScot, and some private charitable trusts.
But to do this at scale will take significant investment over a generational timescale. New sources of funds will also be needed. Some of this might be private investment, but the government, philanthropists, grant giving bodies, trusts, and foundations will have a to play a part in supporting this critical work.
That aside, this is a time of hope for Scotland's rainforest and the people determined to save it.
I came away from the weekend (which was generously supported by Turcan Connell and hosted by Hugh Raven at the Ardtornish Estate) feeling that with such a passionate group of committed people involved, real change is ours to make.