The Scottish Government has announced that they are funding support for the restoration of Scotland’s rainforest, as well as the protection of threatened wildlife, in an attempt to fight the climate crisis.
The support package, coming to over £2.9 million, is to focus on research, conservation and connecting people with nature, with the aim of accelerating the response to the climate crisis.
More than £1.3 million of the funding is to be allocated to a project to restore Scotland’s rainforest, as the impacts of wild deer and invasive rhododendron are to be controlled to promote the recovery of a very fragile forest ecosystem.
Lorna Slater, Biodiversity Minister, said:
“The interlinked crises of nature loss and climate change need urgent action across government and society. A healthy natural environment with restored and thriving biodiversity is also crucial to both our wellbeing and our economy.
“That is why we are continuing to sport and build on a wide programme of enhancing nature protections. This new package of funding adds to our £65 million Nature Restoration Fund, which supports projects across Scotland – on land and at sea – that address the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change.
“We are at a crucial moment as we approach the UN CoP15 biodiversity summit at the end of this year. We will soon publish a new Biodiversity Strategy for Scotland, which will set out what our natural environment needs to look like by 2045 in order to reverse biodiversity decline and protect our environment for the future.
“This Strategy will set out, in detail, how we achieve our goals and a Natural Environment Bill which will pave the way for statutory nature restoration targets.”
The funding also includes £500,000 being allocated to Species on the Edge, which will support 37 of the most vulnerable species in Scotland.
