We're creating 55 hectares of native woodland in Argyll over the next five years thanks to new funding. 

This landmark funding is part of a 100 million trees global reforestation initiative, supported by Priceless Planet Coalition Fund and delivered by Conservation International. The funding means that we can work with even more communities and landowners in Argyll to restore our native temperate rainforest by planting 100,000 trees – our rainforest of the future. 

Scotland’s rainforest, known as temperate rainforest, consists of an increasingly rare and threatened habitat of ancient native woodland. Only 30,000 hectares of Scotland’s rainforest remains. This is an area approximately the size of Edinburgh.

Although Argyll has around half of what remains of Scotland’s rainforest, there are significant problems. One of the main issues is that small surviving patches of rainforest are widely dispersed. This means that the natural rainforest ecosystem struggles to regenerate itself. We’re working to combat this by bringing 100,000 trees back to the landscape. By planting new native woodland and expanding existing woodland, we’re helping to reconnect our rainforest. And more native trees means that more native seeds can spread naturally around Argyll, encouraging a new generation of trees to take root.

Large-scale restoration

ACT woodland coordinator Ian Dow comments: “With this funding, we can reach more communities and work on a larger scale than we have done before. We’re excited to work as part of a global initiative on a shared goal to restore native woodlands across the planet.”

Photo by Ian Dow/ACT

Temperate rainforest once covered much of the west coast of Scotland. Our west coast climate and terrain provide the kind of conditions that help temperate rainforest thrive. While our focus is Argyll, we are working as part of the Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest to restore and expand this unique habitat in Scotland.

Julie Young, ACT chief executive comments: “Reconnecting Argyll’s rainforest is a huge challenge which needs collaborative working and significant funding to allow us to deliver restoration on the scale that will have a lasting impact.”

Find out more

Read more about Saving Argyll’s Rainforest.

Read more about our project with Priceless Planet Coalition Fund.