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CONFERENCE TO EXAMINE RETURN OF SCOTLAND’S MISSING WILDLIFE
Added: (Thu Aug 28 2008)
A major conference examining the return of wild animals once native to Scotland – including beaver, lynx, wild boar and wolf – will be held at Universal Hall, Findhorn near Inverness on 16 and 17 September 2008, hosted by award-winning conservation charity Trees for Life and the Wildland Network.
The two-day “Wild, free and coming back?” conference will feature presentations, workshops, debates, photographic exhibitions, story telling and optional trips into the wild Highlands. Speakers will include Peter Cairns, David Hetherington, Roy Dennis, Kenny Taylor and Iain Valentine.
Anyone interested in the issues is invited to attend, including individuals, conservationists, community groups, crofters, landowners, agencies, gamekeepers, scientists, farmers and students.
Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life’s Founder and Executive Director, said: “The conference will be an opportunity to have an open, wide-ranging discussion about the benefits of returning animals that have been forced into extinction in Britain, and how we can achieve that.
“A key element of our work to help restore the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands, of which only one per cent survives today, will be the eventual return of the species that are essential parts of a balanced, healthy forest ecosystem.”
Costs, including accommodation and meals, are £245 for organisations, £190 for charities and £145 for individuals. Optional field trips will take place immediately after the conference, on 18, 19 and 20 September, to major habitat restoration projects at Alladale, Glen Affric and Carrifran.
For more details and to book places call 0845 458 3505, email kate@treesforlife.org.uk or visit www.treesforlife.org.uk/forest/missing/reintroductions_conf.html.
In May 2008, the Scottish Government decided to allow a trial reintroduction of European beavers to Mid-Argyll, which will go ahead in the spring of 2009.
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Notes to editors
1. Trees for Life aims to restore the Caledonian Forest to an area of 1,500 square kilometres in the Scottish Highlands west of Inverness. For further details please see: www.treesforlife.org.uk
2. Since planting its first trees in 1991 in Glen Affric, Trees for Life has planted over 650,000 trees. Its awards include 1991 UK Conservation Project of the Year and the Millennium Marque in 2000.
3. On World Environment Day 2008 (5 June), Trees for Life pledged to plant 250,000 trees by the end of 2009 as part of the UN Environment Programme’s Billion Tree Campaign. The charity exceeded its 2007 pledge of 100,000 trees by over 9,000 trees.
4. The Wildland Network is an open network which gives voice to wild land values in Britain. For further details please see: www.wildland-network.org.uk