Collaborative Fundraising Project

This project explores the potential for ASR partners to work collaboratively to develop a bespoke fund using philanthropic contributions from corporates and/or individuals. This would be a unique/new approach, where we might have multiple private donors and corporates contributing to a general rainforest fund that is then distributed to ASR’s landscape-scale rainforest restoration projects.

In 2021, The Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest estimated that it will cost more than £500m to achieve its overarching aim – to restore all of Scotland’s rainforest and double its size by 2045. This will involve dozens of landscape-scale rainforest restoration projects, lasting at least 10 years, ideally many more. So far there are 12 such projects, affiliated with ASR (known as “ASR Focus projects”) which are in various stages of development and delivery, with others in the pipeline.

There are few opportunities to access the kind of substantial, long-term funding required for these kinds of projects. So this piece of work is looking at how we can gain access to substantial and long-term funding, with a view to growing the overall pot and trajectory of funding and building longer-term support for Scotland’s rainforest.

Plantlife, RSPB and Woodland Trust are working together, on behalf of the ASR, to scope out such a fund. This fund could be administered through a stand-alone organisation, or via an existing funding body.

Ballachuan hazelwood. Credit John MacPherson

The scoping work has consisted of three work streams:

1. Updating the forecasted cost for full restoration of Scotland’s rainforest, in accordance with ASR’s principles.

2. Scoping out an appropriate governance body to administer a future Fund for Scotland’s Rainforest

3. Exploring the appetite of potential funders and explore how to engage them.

The three workstreams have now been completed with encouraging results, and the process to decide whether to proceed with a three-year development stage is now underway.

This scoping element of this project was supported by the Scottish Government Rainforest Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot.