{"id":4702,"date":"2024-04-08T17:49:44","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T16:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theeuropeannaturetrust.com\/?p=4702"},"modified":"2024-04-08T17:49:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T16:49:47","slug":"creating-a-blueprint-for-private-investment-in-nature-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theeuropeannaturetrust.com\/creating-a-blueprint-for-private-investment-in-nature-restoration\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a blueprint for private investment in nature restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TENT is working with Scottish landowners on a pilot river catchment restoration project, seeking to create a template investment model to deliver native tree planting and peatland restoration.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We aim to work with landowners in the Scottish Highlands to design a river catchment restoration project, linking native woodland with peatland restoration in an ecosystem approach to river health. The experimental project will help create a financial and ecological blueprint for river catchment restoration, helping landowners overcome financial barriers to launching nature recovery projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scotland has lost 97% native woodland cover, which has impacted the health and connectivity of our native habitats. Driven by anthropogenic warming and woodland cover loss, average river temperature is rising significantly, exposing Atlantic salmon populations to thermal stress. Over a temperature threshold of 23 degrees, salmon\u2019s normal biological processes like reproduction, development and metabolism begin to break down. Today, Scotland is facing a real possibility of local extinction of the Atlantic salmon: catches in the Scottish Highlands reached an all-time low in 2022, representing just 75% of the five-year average. Scottish salmon were recently declared \u2018Endangered\u2019<\/a> under the IUCN Red List. With problems at sea, the scientific community is understanding the problems faced by salmon upstream, with salmon now returning on their annual migrations to habitats with diminished riparian woodland cover with an altered hydrology due to the surrounding landscape-use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salmon are an indicator species for the declining health of the broader freshwater ecosystems they inhabit. Moreover, they are a pillar of Highland culture and local employment, and their local extinction threatens the region\u2019s cultural heritage and employment landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n