When you hear the word “rainforest” which country do you think of? Colombia? Costa Rica? Indonesia, perhaps?

What about Scotland? Unbeknownst to many — even those in the UK — Scotland’s west coast is home to a unique, rare, and internationally important habitat: coastal temperate rainforest. It’s a lush environment home to over 400 different species of moss and lichen and rare wildlife such as the Chequered Skipper butterfly. It is considered the best example of such a habitat in all of Europe.

It’s also a deeply imperiled habitat. Following centuries of disturbance and exploitation, only around 30,000 hectares of Scottish rainforest remain, an area slightly larger than Edinburgh. What remains is threatened by overgrazing, invasive species (especially non-native rhododendron), diseases such as ash dieback, air pollution, and climate change.

To preserve and restore Scotland’s rainforest is an enormous undertaking, but one that comes with significant benefits to people, wildlife, and climate. In the wake of World Rewilding Day, we’re pleased to join this critical effort by announcing we are working with Saving Scotland’s Rainforest, a project led by the Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest (ASR).

ASR unites a voluntary partnership of more than 25 organisations committed to collaborative action for the benefit of the rainforest. The Alliance comprises leading environmental NGOs and statutory agencies, specialist societies, and umbrella organisations. The group estimates that roughly £500M is required to fully restore Scotland’s rainforest. Working to raise funds and awareness for the rainforest, ASR organisations are collaborating to deliver a targeted multi-year programme of community-focused, landscape-scale ecosystem restoration efforts that will sequester carbon, provide green jobs, and save this internationally important habitat.

Treeconomy is delighted to lend its expertise to a project so aligned with our mission to combat climate change, promote biodiversity, and improve rural livelihoods. Saving Scotland’s Rainforest exemplifies the values of collaboration and holistic landscape-scale thinking for successful, resilient nature-based solutions. We will be contributing our natural capital knowledge and innovative remote sensing technology to address the £500M rainforest funding gap, exploring new models for attracting finance towards preservation and restoration.

We are exploring opportunities to measure and monitor rainforest biomass, offering carbon baselining and ongoing reporting via our Sherwood platform. We have already convened a task force of academic and ASR partners examining opportunities to fund invasive rhododendron removal and suppression via carbon removal sales, thereby helping to accelerate rainforest regeneration. Laboratory research is underway and we are seeking project funders and pilot opportunities.

We look forward to working with ASR, using technology to leverage finance for the good of nature.

To find out more, we encourage you to get in touch or visit the ASR website: Saving Scotland's Rainforest