Scotland included in £40m project to connect rainforest habitat along UK coastline

Scotland’s remaining rainforests are being included in UK-wide action plan to expand the rare habitat across Britain’s coast.

Wildlife groups have said temperate rainforest once swathed western coasts of England, Wales, Scotland, the island of Ireland and the Isle of Man.

But research from groups, including the Wildlife Trust, shows the area of the UK covered by these woodlands has shrunk from a fifth to 1 per cent with land being cleared for farming or planted for timber.

Temperate rainforest is now found only in fragments that conservationists say are at risk of multiple threats including isolation, invasive species and rising temperatures.

Scotland's rainforests are home to a host of rare species

According to Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest (ASR), which is supported by Woodland Trust Scotland, some 30,000 hectares remain in Scotland, which is about 2 per cent of Scotland’s woodland cover.

Conservationists said scaling up and connecting areas of healthy rainforest habitat, by planting native trees and enabling natural regeneration of the woodlands and species that grow in them, is important for climate change mitigation.

Efforts under way include a £38.9 million, 100-year programme by the Wildlife Trusts, funded by insurance giant Aviva, to establish 1,755 hectares (4,337 acres) of rainforest along the Atlantic coastline, from Cornwall to Scotland.

Tara Cummins, co-ordinator of the Aviva temperate rainforest programme at the Wildlife Trusts, which is working with local and national wildlife trusts to deliver the scheme, said: “The aim is to go beyond traditional habitat restoration, creating entirely new rainforest.”

The company has listed nine UK sites so far, with none confirmed in Scotland to date.

The funding is part of a £100m programme by Aviva of projects in UK and Ireland using nature to tackle climate change.

The company said the project is expected to remove 800,000 tonnes of emissions over 100 years.

Ms Cummins said temperate rainforests needed “incredibly specific conditions to grow”, with steady temperatures and a good level of rainfall.

But she said: “With climate change those conditions are found in less and less areas.”

So expanding the habitat – and linking up with existing patches of rainforest – is key to ensure the woods and their wildlife can survive the changing climate.

The programme comes at a time of debate over the use of land, with pressure for food security, development, nature restoration, climate targets and energy.

Ms Cummins said the scheme was targeting only land that was not valuable for food production, such as heavily degraded land, which had been sitting on the market for several years.

She added: “Restoring these habitats and wild places is critical for climate change, which is also critical for guaranteeing food security,” with the woodlands storing carbon and slowing the flow of water to curb flooding.

According to ASR, Scotland’s rainforest suffers from two significant threats - overgrazing and invasive non native species, particularly Rhododendron ponticum.

Areas that have remains of temperate rainforest include parts of the west Highlands, Argyll and Knoydart.

ASR has previously hailed Knoydart as an “excellent example of community-led, landscape-scale rainforest restoration and expansion”.

The Knoydart Foundation and Knoydart Forest Trust have taken key steps in the past three decades to improve the habitat, including; the near eradication of invasive non-native species Rhododendron Ponticum, effective deer management, the restructuring of non-native conifer plantation woodland which surrounds the village of Inverie and, expanding and linking woodland habitats on the peninsula.