Last week we hosted our annual Nature of Scotland Awards recognising Scotland's nature heroes from the past year. RSPB Scotland's Kirsty Chalmers tells us all about the amazing people and projects who took home awards on the night.
Winners revealed at the Nature of Scotland Awards
Recognising the people, projects and organisations dedicated to protecting our precious natural heritage, the seventh annual Nature of Scotland Awards organised by RSPB Scotland and co-sponsored by Scottish Natural Heritage celebrated some of the countries nature heroes.
Held on the 22nd of November, this year’s awards proved record breaking in terms of the number of applications and the number of guests who came together to celebrate the nominees and we’re delighted to be able to reveal this year’s winners.
We had a record number of guests at the awards this year, Photo Credit: Simon Williams Photography Edinburgh.
Hosted by Kate Humble and Euan McIlwraith, this year’s awards brought more than 380 guests together to celebrate nominees across nine award categories including the exciting new RSPB Young Nature Champion Award created in recognition of the Year of Young People 2018.
The first winner of the RSPB Young Nature Champion Award was Xander Johnston. Nominated for his outstanding dedication to conservation in the Cairngorms National Park, Xander has contributed significantly to the conservation of invertebrates through active recording and promotion of rare species. Xander loves that the surveys and conservation work he has been doing is making a difference to what we know about nature and how we can help protect it.
Award winner Xander Johnston with host Kate Humble Photo Credit: Simon Williams Photography Edinburgh.
Our other winner in this category was Kathleen McMillan who started volunteering with the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park in 2013 and is now working as a Countryside Ranger and Chair of a local conservation group, she spends her time in work and outside it promoting wildlife and its conservation for future generations.
Award Winner Kathleen McMillan
For the year's special theme we also had the SNH Youth & Education Award. This was awarded to “Reviving Rossie - Awakening a Secret Wood”. The project works toward awakening hundreds of young people’s understanding, participation and appreciation of wildlife and biodiversity found within the beautiful woodlands at Rossie near Montrose.
With a mission to promote wellbeing through therapeutic gardening, we were also delighted to award Ninewells Community Garden the Community Initiative Award. The one-acre garden within the grounds of the Dundee hospital is maintained and developed by volunteers and is always open for picnics, walks and play.
Award winner Ninewell's Community Garden in action
Winning the Political Advocate of the Year Award, Dr Tom Dargie, Chairman of “Not Coul” has sacrificed time on his own contracts and research projects to campaign against the proposed Coul Links golf development for no financial reward. His ecological surveying, presentation and political expertise are invaluable and he has countered the developer’s arguments with both clear evidence and tenacity
.Dr Tom Dargie, Political Advocate of the Year award winner
Awarded the Sustainable Development Award, the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre is believed be the largest environmental research programme of its kind and will do incredible work to help inform future development in the sector and help strengthen Scotland’s international lead in wind farm research and innovation.
Platic pollution is a hot topic and serious concern in the UK and globally. It was a pleasure to award the Scotland based blue biotech company CuanTec with the Innovation Award for their compostable, antimicrobial bioplastic made using waste from the fisheries industry. Providing an environmentally responsible alternative to polluting packaging and reducing the burden of food waste in landfill, this company really are innovative.
CuanTec receive their Award, Photo Credit: Simon Williams Photography Edinburgh.
This leads us nicely onto the Food & Farming Award which was presented to Common Farm in East Aryshire. In an area where internationally-important wildlife faces many threats, John Dalziel and his family have integrated wildlife conservation into a successful farming system working with partners to restore peatlands, create wetlands and conserve curlews. We're really proud of their work.
The Argaty Red Kite Project was presented the Nature Tourism Award for their work over the past 22 years to provide a safe haven for red kites. Monitoring the kites growing population and telling visitors their story from persecution and extinction in the nineteenth century, to their amazing reintroductions across Britain from 1989, the project offers central Scotland's only red kite feeding station.
Argaty Red Kites
Offering a home for people and wildlife, Barratt Homes was presented with the Business Award for their work to provide a home for nature at the centre of its Riverside Quarter Development in Aberdeen. Opening up a previously culverted stretch of Bucks Burn, remediating and enhancing its banks and building an artificial otter holt has increased habitat quality for otters, a protected species.
Finally a special mention must also go to the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Sir John Lister Kaye. In a 40-year career he was the first Chairman of Scottish Natural Heritage for the Highlands & Islands, and President of the Scottish Wildlife Trust. He served RSPB Council for twelve years and is a Vice President of the Society. In 1986 he won the World Wilderness Foundation’s gold award for environmental education; he has received honorary doctorates from St Andrew’s and Stirling Universities and in 2003 he was awarded an OBE for services to nature conservation. Sir John is an incredibly deserving winner of this award.
Sir John Lister-Kaye
Sir John Lister-Kaye lives at Aigas, near Beauly, where he is director of the internationally acclaimed Aigas Field Centre, which he founded in 1976, pioneering both ecotourism and environmental education in Scotland. Since then, over 25,000 adults and 150,000 children have passed through the doors of the Aigas Field Centre and in recent years the environmental education for schools’ programme has become the Highlands’ principal provider, reaching some 7,000 school children every year.
The awards would not be possible without the support of our generous sponsors: Scottish Natural Heritage, GreenPower, The James Hutton Institute, Balfour Beatty, Scottish Water, ScottishPower, The Ardmore, Turcan Connell and the National Trust for Scotland.
The full list of winning people, projects and organisations can be found at rspb.org.uk/natureofscotland.