MAKING REWILDING HAPPEN 2024
I tell these young people that rewilding relies on a reset in the way society perceives the landscapes we live in, and the species that share our space.
The wind is behind us!
When I first entered the rewilding space more than two decades ago, the conversation around land-use change in Scotland had barely begun. Sure, there were pioneering thinkers and a small number of doers, but talk of landscape-scale nature recovery was almost non-existent
Fast forward to today, there is a global rewilding movement committed to restoring the health, function and completeness of the living systems upon which we all depend. Rewilding has very much arrived and here in Scotland, momentum is growing – the wind is behind us.
Our work brings us into contact with a diverse range of people, but it’s our young supporters that I enjoy engaging with most. They are passionate about a future Scotland, rich in nature. They envision wild forests hiding boar and lynx, rivers brimming with salmon and healthy peatlands that purify water and lock away carbon.
But in many ways, the practical side of rewilding – the ‘doing’ – is the easy bit. I tell these young people that rewilding relies on a reset in the way society perceives the landscapes we live in, and the species that share our space. Our job is about encouraging more people to see the Big Picture and imagine a new relationship with wild nature.
SCOTLAND: The Big Picture (SBP) has grown from a small group of pioneers into a team of highly-talented rewilding professionals, characterised by a willingness to push at new boundaries. 2024 saw significant growth, both in the size of our team and in our income, but we have never been driven by growth for its own sake, rather by a commitment to deliver maximum impact.
Rewilding takes time and not insignificant amounts of money. It is only possible with the support of many individuals and organisations, and I wish to express my huge appreciation to everyone who supports our work. Your faith in us is truly humbling.
Peter Cairns Founder and Executive Director 2020-2024
OUR VISION
A
vast network of rewilded land and water across Scotland, where wildlife flourishes and people thrive.
WHAT IS REWILDING?
For us, rewilding is an evolving process of nature recovery that leads to restored ecosystem health, function and completeness.
Our view of rewilding is built around these principles:
Providing the space and conditions for dynamic natural processes to shape and govern Scotland’s land and seas.
Recognising the critical role of all species –including missing native species – in sustaining functioning food webs and other ecological interactions.
Nurturing nature recovery at different scales and accepting that approaches to rewilding can look and feel quite different, and still offer valuable benefits.
Improving connectivity across fragmented habitats to give species more freedom to roam, supporting biodiversity recovery and climate resilience.
Helping communities to prosper in a diverse, nature-based economy that works in tandem with ecological recovery.
OUR MISSION
To make rewilding happen across Scotland, as a solution to the growing climate and biodiversity crises.
To achieve this, we work across two focus areas:
DRIVING SUPPORT FOR REWILDING
Using impactful communications and advocacy, we seek to push the boundaries for nature recovery.
COMMITTING MORE LAND AND WATER TO REWILDING
We collaborate with partners across different scales and settings to restore ecosystems and recover wildlife.
DRIVING SUPPORT FOR REWILDING
6 regional screenings to showcase Why Not Scotland?
600 delegates attended the 2024 Big Picture Conference
12 advocacy films produced to drive support for rewilding.
82% said they were more likely to support rewilding following the conference.
214 people took part in our residential training, study tours and learning days.
4,500 people attended 39 audio-visual presentations.
7,000 people attended 200 independent screenings of Why Not Scotland?
60,000 people watched the film when it was made available online.
10 young trainees attended a dedicated course to develop their rewilding communication skills.
11 extended editorial features published.
565,436 people have now visited and engaged with partner sites across our Northwoods Rewilding Network, through a mix of learning experiences, recreational visits and community engagement events.
2024 Highlights
1,921
positive mentions in the UK media that accurately reflected how rewilding looks and works, and the opportunities it can deliver.
27
meetings held to build trust and mutual understanding with groups historically in conflict with rewilding.
12
Scottish farmers, hunters, foresters and National Park representatives accompanied us on a fact-finding mission to Switzerland to learn more about living alongside lynx.
The Fiadh Project,
an initiative to encourage a new measure for successful deer management in Scotland, which places greater emphasis on the recovery of ecological systems, produced its first film.
30%
target for land and sea committed to nature recovery. As a founding member of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, we continued to support calls for the Scottish Government to commit to ambitious nature restoration plans.
SPEAKING TO THE HEART, NOT JUST THE HEAD
Watching Riverwoods was a key catalyst to launching the Findhorn Watershed Initiative, which is already delivering hundreds of hectares of riparian woodland.
Elle Adams, Strategy Lead, Findhorn Watershed Initiative
We have always been passionate about pushing the boundaries for nature recovery using creative and impactful storytelling, and there are few tools as effective as visual media when it comes to connecting with people’s emotions – speaking to their hearts, not just their heads.
Our award-winning Riverwoods documentary toured 15 major venues, was licensed for 520 private screenings and played to a broadcast audience of more than 400,000. We were overwhelmed with the response from audiences, but especially humbled to learn that Riverwoods has played a part in catalysing river restoration initiatives on the ground across Scotland.
Hot on the heels of Riverwoods, in 2024 we began work on another feature-length documentary – Why Not Scotland? The film explores the Scottish landscape through the eyes of Flo, a young Scot who, like many of her generation, is increasingly fearful about an uncertain future.
Why Not Scotland? has played to hundreds of audiences up and down the country, spearheading the Scottish Rewilding Alliance’s campaign for Scotland to become the world’s first Rewilding Nation. We are grateful to everyone who has watched the film to date, and to those who have taken time to feedback so positively.
We continue to work hard in an ever-shifting media landscape to craft compelling stories that engage with a broad range of audiences.
Mat Larkin Visual Content Manager
NURTURING NEW REWILDING CHAMPIONS
The most effective way to drive support for rewilding is to show people what it looks like and, crucially, what it feels like.
Stef Lauer, Rewilding Training Lead and Guide
In 2024, we welcomed a diverse range of people to one of our favourite places to showcase rewilding in the Cairngorms – a beautifully-located lodge at the heart of some of the UK’s most exciting rewilding initiatives.
In addition to our signature Rewilding Journeys – experiences that offer a carefully crafted blend of learning and inspiration – we expanded our professional training offer, delivering residential training courses, study tours and a growing range of rewilding-themed Learning Days.
I thought I was fairly environmentally savvy, but I now see the landscape in a different way – it’s like I’ve had my glasses prescription corrected. Louise, Rewilding Journey guest
The highlight of the year for me, however, was a fully-funded rewilding communications course for a group of young people from diverse backgrounds, including several neurodivergent participants. It’s always refreshing to hear from young voices, but to witness the change in these young people happening before my eyes was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.
Creating a safe space for everyone to express themselves allowed them to engage with real passion and purpose, and there were endless ‘light bulb’ moments as the varied aspects of nature restoration fell into place.
Changing mindsets at a societal level requires champions who have the conviction, skills and knowledge to speak out. I can’t help but think that the rewilding of the future is in the hands of some truly gifted champions.
Stef Lauer Rewilding Training Lead
Throughout 2024, we joined fellow members of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance calling on the Scottish Government to commit 30% of Scotland’s land and seas to nature recovery, and to declare Scotland the world’s first Rewilding Nation. The campaign was backed by notable voices, including actors Leonardo di Caprio and Brian Cox, and sea shanty singer Nathan Evans.
The case for a Rewilding Nation was made at several political party conferences and in December, the Alliance presented the ‘Pathway to a Rewilding Nation’ to Alasdair Allan MSP, the Minister for Climate Action.
Alongside the Rewilding Nation campaign, the Alliance continued to influence policy, responding to six government consultations and informing key pieces of legislation, such as the Agriculture and Rural Communities Act.
The Alliance also teamed up with Community Land Scotland to publish a joint position on rewilding and communities, reinforcing the principle of nature recovery working in tandem with community health and wealth.
Polling shows that 80% of people in Scotland would like their government to have policies in place to support rewilding. As a founding member of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, we’ll continue to support its efforts to create nature-rich land and seas, where people live and work with a sense of pride and belonging.
Sally Wallis Campaigns and Media Manager
THE BIG PICTURE CONFERENCE
Scotland’s rewilding event
Our first Big Picture Conference in 2019 had a simple ambition to help mainstream rewilding, at a time when it remained very much on the periphery of conversations around land use change. The evolution of rewilding since has been nothing short of remarkable, and in 2024, it was amazing to see almost 600 people come together in Perth to be informed and inspired by the latest rewilding stories from across Scotland and beyond.
Our speakers are always carefully selected to represent a range of themes and ideas, with the knowledge and skill of these experts intended to catalyse all-important conversations outside the auditorium – at coffee breaks, over lunch and in cars travelling home. It’s as if the conference lights the blue touch paper, giving people the knowledge and confidence they need to take action in the spaces they control, be that a huge estate or farm, a suburban garden, or the grounds of a local school.
We drive support for rewilding using many different approaches and across multiple platforms, but The Big Picture Conference always feels like a major milestone in the rewilding calendar. We’re proud of how it ignites fresh thinking and renewed motivation to find solutions to the challenges we all face.
Emma Brown Head of Communications and Engagement
THE BIG PICTURE CONFERENCE
What did our attendees think?
Fantastic event.
Excellent presentations and great to meet so many people. Very inspirational.
You opened my eyes to what we’re missing and opened my mind to what we could restore.
I travelled up from England and was made to feel very welcome and part of the Big Picture community of Scottish rewilders.
The buzz of being in a room with 600 people fired up about nature and rewilding – hugely inspiring and invigorating.
I’m working on a project to get school children better informed about nature –I’m even more determined to make it happen after attending such an inspiring event.
COMMITTING MORE LAND AND WATER TO REWILDING
254,559
native trees planted by Northwoods land partners. A further 2,500 hectares set aside for natural woodland regeneration.
Natural capital:
We brokered what is thought to be the first natural capital partnership in Scotland between an educational institution, The University of Edinburgh, and a community landowner, Kinloch Woodlands.
19 more land partners added to the Northwoods Rewilding Network, which now spans 26,000 acres.
100,000 acres committed to nature recovery as part of our Loch Abar Mòr landscape-scale nature restoration partnership in the west Highlands.
£600,000 invested in rewilding actions across our land partner networks working with a growing community of donors, agencies and business partners.
2024 Highlights
Lynx to Scotland
partnership convened a series of consultations with a wide range of stakeholders to examine the barriers to lynx reintroduction and ways in which they might be overcome.
274 new wetland features created across the Northwoods Rewilding Network.
668% increase in breeding amphibians following the creation of 20 new water bodies at Harestone Moss in Aberdeen.
20.4 km of new wildlife corridors have now been established across our land partner network, allowing animals to roam more freely.
544% higher butterfly numbers found at three Northwoods rewilding sites compared to adjacent arable farmland.
28,564 riparian trees planted and 6 beavers reintroduced across the Northwoods network.
THE POWER OF NETWORKING
Northwoods land partners
‘How do I rewild my land?’, asked two farmers back in 2019. Our response was less than convincing – there was no blueprint to take forward their aspirations. Desperate not to let their enthusiasm slip through our fingers, we set about creating the Northwoods Rewilding Network.
While Scotland boasts an increasing number of rewilding initiatives at a landscape-scale, the challenges of climate breakdown and nature loss remain largely unaddressed across the many smaller landholdings that make up our landscapes. Northwoods fills this gap by bringing together landholdings between 100 and 1,000 acres, making rewilding more accessible while collectively delivering ecological recovery at scale.
By the close of 2024, Northwoods had expanded to 85 land partners covering 26,000 acres – a unique collection of farms and crofts, estates and community-owned landholdings. While the scales, settings and motivations of the Northwoods partners vary, they are all united in their vision for an ecologically restored landscape, where habitats are better connected and species can recover, expand and disperse.
We are proud that 20% of Northwoods sites are community-owned landholdings and in 2024, we brokered what is thought to be the first natural capital transaction between a community estate and a major learning institution. The partnership between the University of Edinburgh and Kinloch Woodlands ensures the long-term future of a significant area of regenerating native woodland for the Shieldaig community. The financial support from the University – part of its pledge to be carbon neutral by 2040 – will help meet the costs of woodland recovery while simultaneously bringing investment into community projects.
2024 also saw Northwooods gain wider recognition as a finalist in the prestigious St Andrews Prize for the Environment – the first Scottish project to appear in the finals in the Prize’s 26-year history.
James Nairne Northwoods Rewilding Network Manager
THE POWER OF NETWORKING 2024
Northwoods heroes!
Ballinlaggan Farm
Cairngorms
With support from SBP’s
Rewilding Fund, Ballinlaggan established the Rivertrees
Nursery, supplying species such as alder, willow and aspen to create wildlife corridors alongside rivers and wetlands.
Ardnackaig Farm
Argyll
David Stewart at Ardnackaig in Argyll is pioneering ‘wild grazing’ using no-fence collars on his Highland cattle and Eriskay ponies, reducing the need for intrusive fencing.
Denmarkfield
Perth
Already an exemplar of peri-urban rewilding, Denmarkfield led an initiative to encourage pupils from nearby Luncarty Primary School to help return nature to their school grounds.
Tireragan Isle of Mull
On the southwestern tip of Mull, woodland cover at this community-managed site has doubled in 30 years thanks to natural regeneration following the removal of sheep and deer.
IS SCOTLAND READY FOR LYNX?
Lynx to Scotland is a partnership between Trees for Life, Lifescape and SCOTLAND: The Big Picture.
Scotland’s landscapes have been missing a top mammalian predator – other than humans – for at least 250 years. Our work to return missing native species to our ecosystems is rooted in the belief that we can only reverse ecological decline in the presence of apex predators and the impact they bring to their surroundings.
Large carnivores like lynx, wolves and bears are now finding their way back to European landscapes for the first time in generations. If Scotland is serious about its role in addressing the dual crises of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss – two emergencies that are inextricably linked – it cannot continue to rely on other countries to do the heavy lifting when it comes to living with large carnivores.
Throughout 2024, along with partners in the Lynx to Scotland project, we continued to build the case for the return of lynx to the Scottish Highlands through a carefully managed reintroduction.
In May, we hosted a group of Scottish farmers, hunters, foresters and representatives from the Cairngorms National Park in Switzerland to learn more about the realities of living alongside lynx. This preceded an 8-month national consultation involving key stakeholders, which explored how key concerns about the return of lynx can be overcome.
Many people now accept that lynx could thrive in Scotland given the abundance of habitat and food. But the potential for their return rests with people and their willingness to accommodate an animal that has faded from our cultural memory.
So, is Scotland ready for lynx? We can learn a great deal from other countries living with lynx, but until we step up and open our door to this enigmatic cat, we’ll simply never know.
Kirsten Brewster Wildlife Comeback Lead
(REALLY) BIG THINKING IN LOCHABER
Lochaber is a vast region of the west Highlands covering 4,600 square kilometres, from the shores of the deepest sea lochs to the summit of the UK’s highest mountain.
Despite the unquestionable beauty and drama of the landscape, much of the region’s peatland and wetland has been drained, while native woodland has been felled and burned. As habitats have deteriorated, so too have the abundance and diversity of species, with many now completely lost.
In 2023, we were approached by a number of landowners who felt that Lochaber was falling well short of its ecological potential, as well as its ability to respond to climate breakdown. Within 12 months, Loch Abar Mòr was born – a partnership of land managers, communities and businesses from across the region who share an ambition to restore and reconnect a thriving network of natural habitats, to return more wildlife to the landscape, and to create new social and economic opportunities for the region’s communities.
Led by SBP, Loch Abar Mòr’s founding partners already steward more than 100,000 acres of land. The potential to involve more landholdings and restore wild nature across the entire region is at a scale unprecedented in the UK.
Abel McLinden Loch Abar Mòr Operations Officer
Funding a wilder future
With awareness and understanding of rewilding growing every year, opportunities for nature restoration in Scotland seem almost endless. The funds needed to support these opportunities on the ground must also stretch to our actions behind the scenes – from winning the hearts and minds of a community, to shifting mindsets and overcoming regulatory hurdles.
SBP has always been creative in its approach to securing funding in a competitive environment. We need that creativity now more than ever as we seek to grow our community of supporters, build long-term relationships with trusts and donors, and establish partnerships with businesses keen to make a difference.
Our work to mainstream rewilding in recent years wouldn’t have been possible without the brave and committed trusts, foundations, donors and businesses who share our vision of rewilding for nature, climate and people in Scotland.
If you’ve financially supported our work, thank you for putting your faith in us to make rewilding happen.
If you’re an advocate for rewilding who hasn’t yet pledged support, could you help to make our shared vision a reality?
Every monthly donation to SBP, however small, helps our team to drive support for rewilding and overcome the hurdles delaying nature restoration in Scotland.
Every business partnership creates more native woodland, more space for water, wilder rivers and joined-up habitats, preparing for the return of missing species.
One-off or repeat grants and donations help us to progress transformative projects, tackling issues that other organisations can’t or won’t.
We’ll continue working hard to fund a wilder future for Scotland – and please, if you can, join us by pledging your support for Scotland’s rewilding journey.
Alex Carley Fundraising Manager
With gratitude to the trusts and foundations who generously supported our work in 2024:
Craignish Trust
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Future Woodlands Scotland
Garfield Weston Foundation
Lammart Pollock Trust
Matthew Good Foundation
Ptarmigan Trust
Rewilding Britain
Rewilding Europe
Tay Charitable Trust
The Blackford Trust
The Carman Family Foundation
The DS Smith Charitable Foundation
The European Nature Trust
The Fishmongers’ Company’s Charitable Trust
The Helvellyn Foundation
The Hugh Fraser Foundation
The National Lottery Community Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund
The Pebble Trust
The Swire Charitable Trust
Our sincere thanks to the businesses working with us to show their staff, customers and investors they’re committed to a Scotland where wildlife flourishes and people thrive:
Abernyte Brewery
Burness Paull LLP
Cibus Foundation
Landscaping Your Life
McGowan Environmental Engineering
Meander Apparel
Nature Broking
Nature Picture Library
Rabbie’s Tours
Rachel Davies Mosaics
Soho Green
SSEN Transmission
The Drinks Bakery
The Croft House
Our latest statutory report and financial accounts are available on Companies House or by request from office@scotlandbigpicture.com