The Highlands look like the wildest place in Britain, and in an important sense they are the emptiest rather than the wildest. The Caledonian pine forest that once covered much of this country is down to a scattering of remnants, cleared over centuries and then held back by the teeth of too many deer and sheep. What remains is a landscape of heather moor and bare hill, beautiful and, ecologically, rather hollow.
The Flow Country in the far north is the compensating glory: the largest expanse of blanket bog in the world, a peatland so vast and so deep that its carbon store is of global significance, and so waterlogged and open that it feels less like land than like sky with a floor. It was nearly destroyed by state-subsidised conifer planting in the 1980s, and its recovery is one of the most consequential restoration projects in Europe.
The organizations here regenerate the Caledonian forest, restore the peat of the Flow Country, and drive an ambitious and contested rewilding movement that has already brought beavers back and argues, more controversially, about the wolf and the lynx.
Environmental Organizations in This Bioregion
12 organizations working across this landscape.
Cairngorms Connect
The biggest habitat restoration project in the UK.
Findhorn, Nairn & Lossie Rivers Trust
The Findhorn, Nairn & Lossie Rivers Trust (FNLRT) is a charity and place-based nature restoration organisation, uniquely positioned to play a key role in improving l...
Global Ecovillage Network
The Global Ecovillage Network envisions a world of empowered citizens and communities, designing and implementing their own pathways to a sustainable future.
Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust
The Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust (HWDT) has been leading the way for the conservation of whales and dolphins in Scottish waters for three decades.
John Muir Trust Scotland
The John Muir Trust is a conservation charity dedicated to the protection and enhancement of wild places in the UK.
Nature's Rights
Pioneering the Integrated Rights Framework, we embed human and economic rights within Nature’s rights to transform law from exploitation to regeneration.
Open Seas Trust
Guided by science, collaborative but uncomprimising, we defend the health of our seas and promote fair access and responsible use
Sustainable Kirriemuir
Sustainable Kirriemuir is a community run SCIO where local people work together to make Kirriemuir and the surrounding glens more environmentally sustainable.
Tarland Development Group
Village charity promoting welfare and development of the community
Trees for Life
Rewilding charity in the Scottish Highlands
Wester Ross UNESCO Biosphere
An entirely community-led charity that manages our UNESCO Biosphere designation to help our people and place to thrive in the NW Scottish Highlands.