A PATHWAY for Scotland to become the world’s first "rewilding nation" has been presented to the Scottish Government by the Scottish Rewilding Alliance.
The coalition of more than 20 organisations presented the plan to Minister for Climate Action, Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, at a reception in Edinburgh on Tuesday.
The group set out what it describes as a "trailblazing vision of hope" for Scotland requiring leadership from government in line with its international commitments, urging ministers to commit to nature recovery across 30% of the country’s land and sea.
Figures recorded by the alliance suggested 2.1% of Scotland’s land was rewilding, with 150 projects covering at least 160,000 hectares. But the environmental groups warned the project would need to be significantly scaled up to meet the 30% target.
A Scottish Government spokesperson previously said restoring the country’s natural environment is “a key way” to fight nature loss and climate change.
Karen Blackport, Scottish Rewilding Alliance co-convenor and CEO of Bright Green Nature, said: “This is about choice and opportunity. Declaring Scotland the world’s first rewilding nation would be a powerful statement of intent that we want to be a world leader in nature restoration.
"Our pathway sets out a route offering the Scottish Government the opportunity to show global leadership,” said
Declaring Scotland a "rewilding nation" would hopefully lead to action with ministers committing to restoring the country’s natural environment through "ground-breaking legislation and funding to enable rewilding and empower local communities," the Alliance said.
The proposal includes specific actions to make nature recovery the primary purpose of Scotland’s protected landscapes and seascapes, establishing wild zones around rivers and coastlines, doubling native woodland cover, restoring peatlands at pace, and restricting dredging and bottom trawling across Marine Protected Areas.
Recovery targets would ensure habitat restoration, as well as increases in species abundance and diversity. The Government would also champion the expansion of beaver populations, and begin work on a managed lynx reintroduction, in collaboration with key stakeholders and local communities.
At the presentation, Allan said the event came at an important time for the Scottish Government, and that nature is under threat in an unprecedented way, with one in nine species facing extinction across the country.
He also acknowledged that Scotland has yet to tackle biodiversity loss at a sufficient scale, and praised the work of Scottish Rewilding Alliance members including Argaty Red Kites, Bamff and Seawilding.
“We are extremely grateful, all of us, for the transformative work being underway and for the partnerships that the Scottish Rewilding Alliance has helped to develop.
"Addressing the nature crisis requires a whole government and a whole society approach – working together to achieve a nature-positive Scotland by 2030,” said Allan.
“We also need to support nature to help address the climate crisis and to create a climate-resilient Scotland. We know we must protect and restore [our] natural environment for future generations.”
Scotland is currently ranked in the bottom 25% of countries globally for the state of its nature.
The Scottish Rewilding Alliance is calling on people to sign the Rewilding Nation Charter here.
