Within the Highlands, the collective social memory of the Clearances that shaped the modern pattern of human occupation within this landscape is still alive, despite the hundreds of years that have passed. It is vital for us at Trees for Life to counter the misconception that rewilding means fewer people or another Highland Clearances. The contrary is true. Rewilding creates the opportunity to repeople the land and create new nature-positive enterprises. These enterprises should sustain and grow communities, creating green jobs that simultaneously rely on and regenerate biodiversity.
The area of enterprise most commonly connected with nature restoration is nature-based tourism. For many people, the Covid-19 pandemic has renewed their need to connect with nature, and this presents new opportunities for regenerative nature tourism. Our central focus for re-connecting people with and learning about Highland ecosystems will be at the Dundreggan Rewilding Centre.
The Rewilding Centre will provide a place for locals and visitors to learn about rewilding, experience and learn about the wonders of our native plants and animals, and re-connect with the natural world through the lens of science, music, art and local traditional crafts. The centre will create both permanent and seasonal jobs in nature tourism and hospitality. Tourism and travel partners will also host nature-based tours of the area focusing on wildlife and local culture, these tours will support existing accommodation providers, guides, restaurants and activity providers. We hope this will become a model that can be demonstrated across the Affric Highlands area.
Other new opportunities within a rewilded landscape are created when society puts a value on the natural processes that sustain all life on Earth, known as ‘ecosystem services’. Ecosystem services include everything we use from the land, such as food, timber, clean air and water, as well as the atmospheric carbon captured by plants and stored in the soil and protection against climate warming and flooding that an intact ecosystem provides for human life and well-being.
New opportunities from this ‘natural capital’ rely on payments from businesses and governments to offset unavoidable carbon usage, which can enable the restoration of degraded land. Two types of restorations work in different ways within carbon markets.
Firstly, restoration of degrading, dry and drained bogs (by re-wetting) restores unique and rare biodiversity, ensures they remain as carbon stores and do not release further CO2 to the atmosphere and act to slow water run-off, stabilising river flows and acting to prevent flooding.
Secondly, allowing natural regeneration of native woodland along rivers, on uplands and in rare montane habitats creates multiple benefits along with restoring wildlife. These include shading of rivers to protect salmon spawning grounds from overheating, enhancing river biodiversity through nutrient improvement, slowing water run-off which alleviates flooding, prevention of erosion and landslides, capture of atmospheric carbon in soils and provision of shelter and a more natural diet for mammals including wild deer and domestic animals.
Ecosystem services from restoration projects accredited by Affric Highlands will be offered to vetted investors, and a share of revenues from all ventures will be returned directly to local communities through development trusts or community organisations to drive social benefits. The accreditation of restoration projects by Affric Highlands will command higher carbon prices than other projects, reflecting their ecological and ethical integrity and the inextricably linked climate, biodiversity and social impact that they generate.
There will be more details soon as we work in partnership with community stakeholders and landowners across the area.Affric Highlands is a Trees for Life initiative being delivered in partnership with Rewilding Europe. It is generously funded by the British Science Association, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Halleria Trust, Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust, Nature Restoration Fund, Rewilding Europe, and Support In Mind Scotland.