THE UK’s “largest rewilding landscape” has launched itself as a new independent charity.
Affric Highlands has committed to restoring 20,000 hectares of land for nature, people and the climate over the next 30 years.
The charity, which includes local people and landowners, aims to protect and recover peatlands, rivers and forests.
It has operated as a joint venture led by Trees for Life with support and advice from Rewilding Europe.
Its efforts will also focus on sustainable fishing, farming, timber and wildlife tourism to create a network of businesses supported by rewilding and supporting the environment further.
Affric Highland looks to cover more than 700 square miles of connected landholdings from Loch Ness to Kintail on the west coast, with the charity’s area is centred on Glen Affric in Beauly.
Stephanie Kiel, Affric Highlands’s executive director, said: “Affric Highlands is a community focused vision of hope.
“It’s hugely inspiring to be setting out as a new charity on this ambitious 30-year journey to take large-scale nature recovery to a new level.
“We want to create new opportunities and real benefits for local landowners, communities and rural economies, so nature, people and livelihoods can all thrive together.”
A statesman from the charity added: "The region is stunningly beautiful but largely ecologically damaged, with much land degraded following centuries of deforestation and overgrazing.
"The globally unique Caledonian forest has been reduced to isolated fragments. Damage to peatlands means they are emitting rather than absorbing carbon. Lochs and rivers are depleted of salmon.
"This damage to the natural world means the region now supports fewer people than it could – limiting people’s opportunities for sustainable land-based jobs, and undermining sustainable agriculture which depends on functioning natural processes."
The charity’s partnerships cover 58,000 hectares of land curated by 19 local landowners. The individual landholdings are free to decide what benefits their land so solutions can be tailored to the landscape’s specific needs.
Trees For Life has been aiding Affric Highlands since the 1990s.
The charity’s chief executive, Steve Micklewright (above), said: “Affric Highlands’s success so far has brought us to the point where it can now begin a new era as an independent charity.
“This is fantastic news for breathing new life into the Highlands through rewilding.”
Trees For Life cares for a 10,000-acre estate in Dundreggan, Glenmoriston which is where the world’s first rewilding centre was founded – Dundreggan Rewilding Centre.
They have pushed for planting native tree species like the Scots pine in Glen Affric which has brought wildlife back to its former home
Affric Highlands became the ninth member of Rewilding Europe’s coalition of rewilding sites in September 2021.
Frans Schepers, Rewilding Europe’s executive director, said Affric Highlands will “enrich the social fabric and wildlife of these glens and hills, while inspiring the growth of landscape-scale rewilding across Europe too”.
Rewilding Europe covers ecologically precious areas such as the Danube Delta, Romania’s Southern Carpathians and the Iberian Highlands in Spain.
