It’s time for our monthly Ecologi update! As Natusan regulars will know by now, we partner with Ecologi to plant a tree for every order (that’s 76,075 trees and counting!).
Ecologi also supports a broader range of projects worldwide, and we love taking a look at the climate-positive work they have been getting involved with. This month, it’s a project pretty close to home: a living forest project on the Isle of Skye.
The project background
A recent study by scientists at the Natural History Museum found that almost half of Britain’s biodiversity has been lost since the industrial revolution, and we’ve lost more of our biodiversity than most other western European countries.
In fact, the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries, ranking in the bottom 10% of nations. The agricultural and industrial revolutions were the real triggers for this, and its farming and the spread of urban areas are major causes of this loss of biodiversity.
The situation isn’t the same across the UK, with more remote areas retaining more of their biodiversity than heavily-farmed and urbanised areas like the south-east of England. But there are things that can be done to help support our biodiversity.
Why are native trees important?
Planting native trees encourages wildlife and helps to support biodiversity. Native trees or plants are species that naturally exist within that area or region.
Native plants support more wildlife than non-native species. This is because these native trees and plants have evolved and adapted to support the surrounding ecological systems, and other native wildlife (like bees, birds and butterflies) depend on them for their survival.
The Uigshader Living Forest Project
In Scotland, the local community have come together to acquire land in the north of the Isle of Skye that was previously used as a timber plantation. The area is being restored by the local community, with a focus on planting native trees to encourage biodiversity and restoring peatland.
Native trees to be planted will include Hazel, Aspen, Crab Apple, Hawthorn and Bird Cherry. The project plans to plant 30,000 native trees, with 10,000 being planted in phase one of their process. Of these initial 10,000 native trees, 1600 will be funded by Ecologi.
In their own words, the team from the Uigshader Living Forest Project (ULFP) want to “rehabilitate” the former commercial plantation, restoring the area “into a diverse native habitat, to rehabilitate a previously industrialised landscape into a productive community woodland using native species, conserving valuable ecosystems such as deep peat, and in the process delivering benefits to biodiversity and the community.”
The group also plan to make the woodland a recreational resource and asset for the local community, for them to visit and learn more about nature.
You can find out more about the project on Ecologi’s project update and ULFP’s website.
24/02/2023 by NatuTeam