Highland rewilding initiative Affric Highlands set for new chapter as it obtains charity status
A Highland rewilding initiative — the largest in the UK — has now launched as an independent charity in a bid to restore nature across more than 200,000 hectares of the central Highlands.
Affric Highlands began work in September 2021 after its first three years of work as Trees for Life’s East-West Wild project and operating as a joint venture led by Trees for Life with support and advice from Rewilding Europe since then.
Now, the initiative has grown so successfully that it has now been launched as an independent charity, to take forward and upscale its mission.
Stephanie Kiel, Affric Highlands executive director, said: “"Establishing itself as a standalone entity enables the Affric Highlands team to shape and share their own narrative of rewilding within the Scottish context, while continuing to build relationships grounded in mutual respect and trust.
"It also allows us to really focus on the region – our knowledge, experience and approaches are based within and tailored to this unique landscape, its nature, people, culture, and history.
"We can raise our own funds that are dedicated to the interventions and in our landscape and develop novel, innovative approaches to problems specific to the Affric Highlands region."
The community-focused initiative brings together a broad partnership of landowners, local people and others to restore native woodland, peatland and riverside habitats, and boost wildlife across a linked network of landholdings stretching from Loch Ness to the west coast.
It will rewild the landscape and allow nature to connect and thrive across large areas – creating social and economic benefits for communities, supporting re-peopling, and tackling the climate and nature emergencies.
“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,” said Affric Highlands executive director Stephanie Kiel.
“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.”
The initiative will potentially cover over 700 square miles stretching from Loch Ness to Kintail in the west, and encompassing Glens Cannich, Urquhart, Affric, Moriston and Shiel.
Trees for Life’s own 10,000-acre estate at Dundreggan in Glenmoriston — regarded as an exemplar of rewilding in the Highlands, and home to the world’s first Rewilding Centre — is one of over 45 different estates that own most of the land in the Affric Highlands landscape.
Steve Micklewright, Trees for Life’s chief executive, said: “Affric Highlands’ success so far – coupled with the opportunities for people offered by its bold vision of landscape-scale nature recovery – 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.”
Affric Highlands will work with local landowners to strengthen land-based rural livelihoods and nature-based economic opportunities, making the region a hub for sustainable timber, fishing, farming, venison and wildlife tourism. This will include the creation of a network of businesses benefitting from rewilding.
According to the charity, restoring habitats will boost biodiversity and benefit wildlife including golden eagles, red squirrels, black grouse, mountain hares, salmon, trout, ospreys and otters.
They said that damage to the natural world over the past centuries — including deforestation and overgrazing and damage to peatlands — 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.
Affric Highlands’ partnership now consists of a coalition of 19 landowners, covering an area of over 58,000 hectares within the landscape.
Native woodlands and peatlands are being restored to boost biodiversity and absorb carbon. Riverwoods are being created by returning woodland to the banks of upland streams and rivers to provide vital shade, nutrients and shelter for Scotland’s struggling Atlantic salmon.
Frans Schepers, executive director of Rewilding Europe, said: “By recovering a tapestry of habitats, bringing together landowners and communities, and creating tangible benefits for people, 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.”
