A GROUP of Highland landowners are looking to “reawaken the landscape” across an area of Lochaber bigger than Edinburgh.
The group of landowners named Beò Airceig, is collaborating to regenerate and reconnect Caledonian pine forests and other surviving rainforest remnants surrounding Loch Arkaig and the Western Highlands area.
Beò Airceig is comprised of the Achnacarry Estate, Arkaig Community Forest, Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), and the Woodland Trust Scotland.
It describes itself as representative of land ownership in the Highlands – an estate, a community group that has exercised its right-to-buy, a government agency and a conservation charity.
The group will focus on habitat restoration, maintaining or increasing biodiversity, upping climate change resilience and unlocking economic potential from timber and venison in the area.
Astie Camerson of Achnacarry Estate said: “Between us we bring not only a great deal of land to the table but also a huge amount of expertise and experience.
“We are very excited to be working together. We have much to learn from each other and hope what we achieve will inspire others.”
Christina Tracey, Forest Planning Manager with FLS said: “We have agreed a vision to reawaken the landscape as a thriving natural ecosystem with a rich diversity of habitats that will support a resilient local community of both people and wildlife with an environmental, social and economic balance.”
