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Beavers are an iconic keystone species and nature's ecosystem architects. Their return to the Scottish Highlands will benefit nature, climate and people, helping other species thrive by creating biodiversity-rich, carbon-storing wetlands and improving the health of our rivers for all aquatic life.
Categories
Beneficiaries
Situation
Beavers have been absent from the northern Scottish Highlands for around 400 years having been hunted to extinction. Over the centuries, other negative impacts such as over-grazing and deforestation have reduced the landscape's biodiversity to some of the lowest levels in Europe. Now climate change threatens that which remains and we need to harness nature's genius to help secure a sustainable future for wildlife and people alike.
Solution
We will work with communities and landowners to secure licences for the release of beaver families in the northern Scottish Highlands where they will be free to thrive and help to revive entire ecosystems. By building their dams in burns feeding lochs, beavers create wetlands where insects will thrive, birds will feed and fish will spawn. Other species including pine marten, deer and otters will use the dam as a bridge as they move through the rewilding landscape.
