Saving Scotland’s rainforest is no walk in the park
As the ASR launches a new progress report for World Rainforest Day 2025, Julie Stoneman, Saving Scotland’s Rainforest Programme Manager, looks back at the last five years of rainforest restoration.
Julie joins a Woodland Trust rainforest expedition to Glen Nevis. Credit Jill Donnachie
When I started my post in February 2020, my predecessor warned me that “saving Scotland’s rainforest will be no walk in the park”. He’d spent the previous three years galvanising the Alliance and co-ordinating the production of the State of Scotland’s Rainforest report, which laid out just how threatened this internationally important habitat is. He was handing me the reins to work out how to address those threats and achieve the Alliance’s vision of a fully restored ecosystem. Anyone reading that report would know he was absolutely right: it wouldn’t be easy.
At that time, the Alliance was made up of about 15 organisations, and the people involved were mostly experts in woodland ecology and the lichens and bryophytes that make the rainforest so special. When I took over, they were beginning to grapple with the issues of how to communicate and advocate; whether to hold landowner workshops or find research projects for students to do; how volunteers could help; and whether there should be a website.
Then Covid came along and put everything on hold – which was good timing, as it turned out, because it gave us a chance to step back from the ‘what shall we do now?’ and consider the more strategic questions around where our collaborative efforts would have most impact, and how best to work together.
That feels a long time ago.
Julie at the Celebrating Scotland’s Rainforest event at the Edinburgh Botanics. Credit Helen Pugh
As soon as we had agreed our collaborative strategy, the first version of which came out as soon as April that year, everything else began to follow. The two lead organisations of the time, Plantlife and Woodland Trust, offered staff to lead on particular areas of work, and we brought them together in a steering group which had the responsibility to deliver against the strategy. Now we have 12 people in that group, supported by three advisors.
In turn, steering group members initiated working groups to tackle specific strands of work, bringing together the expertise needed from the various ASR organisations. There are now 10 of these groups involving well over 100 people, working alongside another 20 non-ASR ‘collaborating organisations’.
In 2020 there were four areas where landscape-scale rainforest restoration work was an aspiration – so we had the idea to ‘adopt’ them as ASR focus projects to give them profile. Now we have 11 of these projects, covering more than 15% of Scotland’s rainforest zone, with several in delivery and more in the pipeline.
At that time, hardly anyone was even talking about rainforest – even the partners of the Alliance themselves. Now its one of the most high-profile habitats in Scotland, the Alliance has grown to a 25 organisation-strong partnership, and communities in the rainforest zone are taking up the challenging of restoring rainforest for themselves.
Getting to know rainforest lichens. Credit Jill Donnachie
Sometimes people say to me that it must be difficult to work with so many organisations and people, and assume I spend my time sorting out arguments or banging my head against the wall. But that assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. The ASR is made up of some of the most knowledgeable, skilled and passionate people I know. My time is spent helping find ways to co-ordinate their efforts for best effect; keeping our focus on our collaborative strategy; looking for win-win scenarios; providing information and opportunities to help people do the best job possible; and helping everyone feel they are contributing to a much bigger ‘Saving Scotland’s Rainforest’ picture.
While it’s certainly a challenging role, it’s the most satisfying job I’ve ever had – because I work with such great people, because I’m well supported, and because I can see real impact from our collaborative action. Not to mention it’s all about an awe-inspiring habitat in a stunning area of Scotland.
Our progress report has provided a useful opportunity to step back and consider how far we’ve come. I feel proud looking over it, and in awe of the people involved – whether they are daring the ticks to dig up countless rhododendron bushes, bringing communities and landowners together, finding ways to fund the work, influencing the policy makers, or raising the profile of the rainforest and its importance.
There’s still a long way to go, and the challenge we’ve set ourselves is still ‘no walk in the park’. People come and go, political leadership changes, the world outside is unpredictable, and funds are as hard as ever to find – but we must adapt, evolve and persist until we reach our goal of restoring all of Scotland’s rainforest by 2045 and doubling its size. This important, precious ecosystem that’s found in so few places, still needs our help as much as ever.
Thank you to everyone who’s come on this journey so far – imagine what we can achieve within another five years?
