Environment

Researchers at The James Hutton Institute are working with a community-owned woodland in Aberdeenshire to explore how people can take a greater role in deciding how solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises are used in their local environments.

The project, involving Murray Park Community Woodland in Alford, is one of seven across Europe and Scandinavia as part of £4.6 million international project called “COEVOLVERS”.

People around Scotland are doing more than ever to help save threatened bees, moths, and hoverflies, according to a new NatureScot report.

More than 70 farmers and Crofters across Scotland are working together in a programme to share nature-friendly farming approaches to restore biodiversity and address climate change while also strengthening their livelihoods. 

Scottish Forestry is investing £2 million towards timber transport projects across Scotland. The funding will help decarbonise the forestry sector and reduce the impacts of timber lorries on communities and the environment.  

In response to growing concerns in the Scottish farming sector about the suspected role of badgers in killing and eating lambs, a study was carried out by Science & Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) in partnership with NatureScot, National Farmers Union Scotland (NFUS) and Scottish Land & Estates (SLE).

A new project from Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland aims to discover Scotland’s ‘lost’ native pinewoods – home to wild Scots pines with an ancestry that can be traced back to the end of the last ice age – so they can be saved and restored before it’s too late.

More than £7 million has been awarded to 517 rural businesses in 2023 from the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS). 

Overall, £27m will be paid over the lifetime of the contracts to applicants, to help support land management activities that will benefit nature and mitigate against climate change.