Lochaber Conference Launches Coalition to Save Caledonian Pinewoods

With remnants of Scotland’s globally unique Caledonian pinewoods at risk of being lost forever, a summit meeting of landowners and woodland experts has agreed to form a partnership to boost restoration efforts with the aim of bringing surviving pinewoods into good condition and doubling their area by 2055.

Scotland’s Pinewood Conference 2024 – held in Fort William on 28 and 29 October, and the first of its kind for 30 years – brought together 160 experts from across the country.

Delegates signed a ground-breaking resolution highlighting the global importance of the Caledonian pinewoods, calling for concerted cross-sector action to save them, and agreeing Scotland’s first set of pinewood management principles.

Alastair Seaman, Conference Chair and Woodland Trust Scotland Director said: “The message from the conference was clear – decisive, bold and landscape-scale action by charities, landowners and government working together is needed to save and restore Scotland’s Caledonian pinewoods, and there is no time to lose.”

Less than 2% of the Caledonian forest, which once covered much of the Highlands, now survives – in small and isolated fragments, often in poor condition. These culturally and historically important woodlands are a refuge for rare wildlife, from charismatic capercaillie and red squirrels to microscopic lichens and beautiful twinflower.

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands Mairi Gougeon MSP said, “The Scottish Government is committed to restoring and expanding Scotland’s precious pinewoods – they are a treasured and iconic natural asset. To date we have supported over 4,000 hectares of Caledonian pinewood regeneration and over 8,000 hectares of newly planted pinewood through the Forestry Grant Scheme. But of course more needs to be done.”

“The work to expand and restore our native pinewoods is only possible through a vast collaborative effort by many organisations and individuals. I very much welcome the new Caledonian Pinewood Partnership and look forward to working with them to boost our native pinewoods.”

At the conference charities including Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland; and public agencies including Forestry and Land Scotland and NatureScot agreed to form the Caledonian Pinewood Partnership. More are expected to join. This new coalition will take landscape-scale collaborative action to bring the surviving pinewoods into good condition and double their area over the next three decades, largely through natural regeneration and joining up existing fragments.

Steve Micklewright, Chief Executive of Trees for Life, said: “This is a much-needed moment of hope for the Caledonian pinewoods after centuries of deforestation. We could be the generation that pulls these beautiful life-supporting woodlands back from the brink. But ambitious upscaling of political and public action is needed – and the nature and climate emergencies mean the clock is ticking.”

In the first major study into the health of the pinewoods for 60 years, Trees for Life’s Caledonian Pinewood Recovery Project report, published last year, warned that a quarter of the pinewoods are critically threatened. Key threats are high deer numbers, non-native conifers, lack of long-term management, and climate breakdown.

Just 84 native pinewood sites covering some 42,000 acres are officially recognised on the Caledonian Pinewood Inventory. The Wild Pine Project led by Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland is currently searching for more ‘lost’ pinewoods.

The pinewoods are a diverse and rich natural habitat with a genetic lineage stretching back to the last ice age. Native Scots pines form the ‘backbone’ of these forest ecosystems on which many species depend.

Scotland’s Pinewood Conference 2024 at the Nevis Centre in Fort William was hosted by a group of organisations including Arkaig Community Forest, Forestry and Land Scotland, JAHAMA Highland Estates, John Muir Trust, National Trust for Scotland, NatureScot, Native Woodland Discussion Group, Nevis Landscape Partnership, RSPB Scotland, Scottish Forestry, Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland.