AN ISLAND forest that shelters a holly tree nearly three centuries old is one of only 11 projects to win financial support from a rewilding charity in its latest funding round.
Also successful was a “bold”, youth-led initiative designed to reconnect young adults in Scotland with nature.
More than £140,000 was awarded to 11 projects in the UK by Rewilding Britain in its most oversubscribed funding opportunity to date.
The charity said the quality, ambition and scope of the applications made clear there is an urgent need for greater investment in nature.
“We’ve been awarding funding through the Rewilding Innovation Fund twice a year since 2021 and we’ve never seen such a surge in high-quality applications,” said Rebecca Wrigley, chief executive of Rewilding Britain.
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“The appetite for rewilding is clearly outpacing the resources available – we could have funded more than £600,000 worth of projects this round alone.”
She added: “It’s inspiring to see rewilding grow not just in scale but in creativity, ambition and diversity. With more resources and greater investment in rewilding, we could enable so much more valuable work restoring biodiversity, protecting habitats and connecting people with nature across Britain.”
Borders Forest Trust was one of the successful bids, winning a total of £9600 for its Discover Nature Award. The scheme begins in local green spaces in Edinburgh and Glasgow, encouraging young people aged between 18 and 28 to explore Scotland’s climate and biodiversity challenges in their own neighbourhoods.
The charity then provides free transport to their rewilding sites, bridging the gap between local nature connection and the benefits of rewilding to help young people understand the challenges of the climate crisis.
Sam Knight, Discover Nature Award manager at Borders Forest Trust, said: “With the Discover Nature Award, we wanted to create a free and accessible opportunity for all young people in Scotland to access nature, regardless of their background.
“This welcome funding from Rewilding Britain directly addresses two of the most significant barriers to achieving this: transport and outreach. Without it, our ability to scale and embed the Discover Nature Award as a long term, inclusive route into rewilding would have been significantly delayed.”
Also successful was the Mull and Iona Community Trust which is rewilding Ardura, their 200-hectare community-owned forest.
The trust won £9600 of funding to scale up their impact by partnering with neighbouring landowners and managers.
“Ardura Community Forest is a fantastic example of community-led rewilding making incredible strides for rewilding in Scotland and we’re delighted to give them our support through the Rewilding Innovation Fund,” said Sara King, rewilding manager at Rewilding Britain.
Ardura Forest has long been an important part of the lives of islanders, central to the way of life for generations of Mull families.
The Gaelic naming of the forest, Doir a’ Chuilinn, or “holly grove” goes back to medieval times with the oldest known tree in the forest a holly, dated from around 1733 and therefore almost 300 years old.
An ancient oakwood and part of the Atlantic rainforest – one of Scotland’s most precious habitats, internationally as important as tropical rainforests but even rarer – Ardura is home to a rich and diverse array of birds, mammals and plants.
They include marsh fritillary butterflies, pine martens, otters, the very rare hazel glove fungus, redstarts and spotted flycatcher and birds of prey such as eagles and hen harriers.
The forest was visited by the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay on their visit to Mull in May this year.
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“The community is working to urgently restore and protect this ancient rainforest, its rare and vulnerable wildlife and landscapes, to revise the damage caused by decades of commercial tree planting and harvesting under previous ownership and overgrazing by the wild deer population,” said a Mull and Iona Community Trust spokesperson.
“The work is a key part of the charity’s long-term vision to regenerate, protect and enhance Ardura’s Atlantic rainforest biodiversity over the next 20 plus years, ready to face the threats of climate change.
“We are conserving globally rare fungi, plant and lichen species to help some of the UK’s most vulnerable birds and animals to survive while providing local employment opportunities.
“Our community is only just beginning to uncover the human story held within Ardura but we do know that for centuries subsistence farmers grazed and sheltered their animals in the forest. People also used the forest to manage and harvest the timber and firewood needed to keep themselves and their families warm and fed.”
The spokesperson said Ardura was now a place for “gentle recreation, experiencing nature, finding solace and reflecting on cultural and personal links” to the islanders’ forebears.
“In a small and remote community, where indoor leisure facilities are limited, the forest provides a much-needed space for islanders to meet and socialise,” the spokesperson added.
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