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Alan
Watson Featherstone
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Rewilding Scotland –
from restored forests to the return of predators such as the lynx –
was in the spotlight at a topical lecture by leading conservationist
Alan Watson Featherstone, founder and Executive Director of
award-winning charity Trees for Life, at Edinburgh Zoo today (24
March).
The event highlighted
the benefits of rewilding – the restoration of damaged natural
ecosystems – for Scotland. This includes putting Scotland on the
map as a wildlife tourism global hotspot and as a world leader in the
international drive to tackle global forest loss.
The lecture was the
final one in a special eight-week series that has been running at
Edinburgh Zoo this year, focussing on Scottish
species diversity and conservation.
Mr. Watson Featherstone
said: “In the Highlands we have an opportunity to reverse
environmental degradation and create a world-class wilderness region
– offering a lifeline to wildlife including beavers, capercaillie,
wood ants and pine martens, and restoring natural forests and wild
spaces for our
children and grandchildren.”
Long-term deforestation
and overgrazing by too many deer and sheep has left much of Scotland
depleted and barren, with wildlife in retreat or missing. The
Caledonian Forest – Scotland’s equivalent of a rainforest – is
one of the UK’s most endangered habitats, with many of its rare
species facing extinction.
Yet action across
Scotland is showing how restoring natural processes and protecting
wilderness areas, and reducing human interference in ecosystems, can
make a positive difference. This includes the restoration of native
forests at many Highland sites, the re-establishment of birds of prey
such as sea eagles, ospreys and red kites, and the trial
reintroduction of European beavers at Knapdale in Argyll.
Future rewilding could
involve the reinstatement of missing species, including apex
predators – which play a crucial top-down regulatory role in
ecosystems.
Trees for Life believes
that the Eurasian lynx – already reintroduced to areas of Europe
such as the Alps and Jura mountains – is a realistic candidate for
reintroduction. It offers little threat to sheep and none to humans.
It is a specialist predator of roe deer, a species which has
multiplied in Britain in recent years and which holds back the
natural regeneration of trees through intensive browsing.
Trees for Life is
restoring Scotland’s ancient Caledonian Forest, and offers many
opportunities for volunteers to support its work and gain
conservation experience. See www.treesforlife.org.uk.
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| Eurasian Lynx |
Background
– reintroducing the lynx
Across
Scotland high numbers of deer are having a negative impact –
through overgrazing and trampling – on reforestation, habitat
quality, biodiversity and ecosystem services such as carbon
sequestration and flood prevention. The
loss of native carnivores means that deer now have no natural
predators.
The
reintroduction of a top predator is
crucial, and the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) is a realistic
candidate. The species is still present in many northern and eastern
– and some southern – countries in Europe. It represents no
threat to humans, and there are no European records of anyone being
attacked by a lynx.
While the
reintroduction of predators is often proposed as a means of reducing
excessive numbers of red deer in the Highlands, the main impact would
likely be in disturbing deer populations – causing these animals to
move more frequently so that their grazing is less concentrated in
specific areas.
Trees
for Life believes the lynx could be reintroduced to the UK by 2025.
Restoring enough native woodland as habitat would be crucial, and
some experts estimate that the Highlands could support a genetically
viable population of 400 animals.
Experts
are uncertain as to when the lynx died out in Britain, although some
discoveries suggest its extinction date may have been some 1,500
years ago.
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