PICTURES: Tain community hosts Species on the Edge drive as ambitious multimillion-pound conservation programme launched
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A Highland community was the focus of a trailblazing new multi-species conservation programme, Species on the Edge.
The ambitious partnership programme, led by NatureScot and seven conservation charities, aims to improve the fortunes of 37 priority species along Scotland's coast and islands.
A launch event at Logie Quarry near Tain was organised by Butterfly Conservation, which is leading Species on the Edge on the east coast, and hosted by Balnagown Estate, which owns the site.
With £4m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the £6.5m Species on the Edge partnership promises to deliver a four-and-a-half-year programme of work to tackle the impacts of environmental change on wildlife, benefitting both nature and people.
Partners are Amphibian and Reptile Conservation; The Bat Conservation Trust; Buglife; Bumblebee Conservation Trust; Butterfly Conservation; NatureScot; Plantlife and RSPB Scotland.
Scotland’s coast and islands are amongst the most biodiverse areas in the UK offering a last refuge for some of our most beautiful and unusual –but also most vulnerable– species. Many are in decline and some face extinction.
The State of Nature Scotland 2019 reported a shocking decline in almost half of Scotland’s species since 1970 with 91 species critically endangered. Habitat loss, climate change, pollution, invasive species, disease, and changes to land management practice are key drivers of biodiversity decline.
While human activities have contributed to the decline, people are also at the heart of reversing it. Working with local communities, Species on the Edge aims to secure and improve the future for coastal and island species; form a support network between communities, to safeguard vulnerable biodiversity; strengthen the partnership approach to conservation work in Scotland and raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity.
“Scotland’s coastline is dramatic, rugged, wild and beautiful. At the same time it is home to a fragile ecology, a natural heritage that we have a duty to protect.”
Work will include species survey and monitoring, habitat creation and restoration, education and learning events, advice for land managers, volunteering opportunities, training workshops, traineeships and work experience.
The launch event focussed on the Small Blue butterfly – one of the project’s priority species in the east coast area which breeds at Logie Quarry.
Caroline Clark, of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Scotland’s coastline is dramatic, rugged, wild and beautiful. At the same time it is home to a fragile ecology, a natural heritage that we have a duty to protect.”
Butterfly Conservation have been working with Balnagown Estate at Logie Quarry to support the fragile species which can be found in its numerous habitats: heather, scrub, woodland, lochans, seasonal pools and sand. Without the work undertaken there, the Small Blue, the UK’s smallest butterfly, would have been lost from the site.
Callum Paterson, factor of Balnagown, said: “It is heartening to see how biodiversity has improved at the site due to the work Butterfly Conservation have undertaken and we look forward to continuing to work in collaboration during Species on the Edge.”
Tracy Munro, Species on the Edge project officer for Butterfly Conservation, said: “We were thrilled to launch this important project to the public at Logie Quarry where the Balnagown Estate is working with us to conserve habitat for the threatened Small Blue and Dingy Skipper butterflies. This project will make a tangible difference to so many species in Scotland and we’re proud and excited to begin alongside our partner organisations and volunteers.”
