EXPLORING SCOTLAND'S RAINFOREST | one of the world's most unique forest habitats 

Oh yes, that would be amazing!! 💚

I can assure you it is.

Reclaiming our country from British rule is our main issue

What an insightful film. Very informative and so well made. Well done. It's time that the Scottish Government got properly serious on this issue and took all landholdings of over 100 hectares, except for working arable and livestock farms, into public ownership. These giant estates where the owners rule like feudal kings should be consigned to history.

its a problem across the whole of Britain too

Oh wow, that sounds amazing! Since moving to the countryside I keep craving even wilder and more forested places. One day I'd also love to explore more of America and all of its nature!

I'm really glad you found it informative! :) I didn't know either! I was really quite surprised when I started learning about it.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me less than a week ago! 😊 Two recommendations within a week... I will ask for it for Christmas! 💚

Yes, I absolutely agree! 💚 My home is in the South Downs and I agree that it would be tragic to loose all of the UK’s rolling green hills. 

George Monbiot, one of the leading advocates for rewilding large areas agrees as well. His view is that when we are figuring out how best to manage our landscapes we need to make better distinctions about the different and sometimes competing claims about what we’re preserving or restoring, and why. So it is totally valid to want to conserve lots of the rolling hills, even the sheep farming and some of the grouse moors. But we should be arguing for that preservation on the basis that it is important living cultural heritage. And that there are people whose ways of life are wrapped up in it. All that needs protecting! What we should NOT do is argue that these managed landscapes are ecological treasures, wonders of nature that need to be protected against people for the benefit of the ecosystem. Bizarrely, as explained in George Monbiot’s book ‘Feral’, it’s really common for that to happen. Many people see the bare hills as unspoilt nature. In fact many ‘conservationists’ who love nature and dedicate their lives to it, end up doing kinda crazy conservation work, where they labour to ‘protect’ landscapes like these grouse moors with ‘biodiversity action plans’, in which the few species that do well there (e.g. a grassland beetle or mushroom) are identified as the nature that needs conserving, and the birch and oak saplings that are trying to reclaim the grassland are ceaselessly cut down in the name of biodiversity, although that forest that wants to grow would have much higher biodiversity! 

So some grassland needs preserving, but the things we gain and lose by preserving each bit needs considering. It’s all about having honest, informed and democratic conversations where we can balance the different priorities more reasonably. It’s totally possible to conserve many of the open views and grassy habitats and cultural heritage and rewild huge areas as well. In fact, by actually identifying the competing interests, it seems possible to do better for almost all of them! E.g. you can imagine policy that reduced the total area of land being managed for grouse, whilst actually increasing the number and diversity of people who can access grouse shooting (if they want to!). Similarly you could reduce the total area managed for sheep, whilst having land ownership policies that favour communities over agricultural corporations and so increase the numbers of people from sheep farming communities who actually get to have their own family farm. Sorry, that turned into a rather long comment... 😄 You can tell I'm passionate about the topic.

@@alexandrareuter327 You're considerably more knowledgeable than me on the subject Alexandra 👍 Good to hear those arguments. Yeah, the long standing shooting and hunting associations with "conservation" in their titles are probably the first examples of greenwash. The then Prince Charles simultaneously being President of them and of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) destroyed his credibility on the issue long ago afaic.

Yes, totally agree on the greenwashing! I almost added a section in the video about the Royal family and their estate in the Cairngorms. It's pretty ironic that King Charles is so outspoken about environmental issues while also owning huge grouse moors... The video was getting pretty long so I left it out.

I grew up in Germany but have lived in the UK for the past 9 years. So I think my accent is German with a bit of British English mixed in. 😊

@@alexandrareuter327 Thank you for the answer. :-) I got it right, then, for I thought that your accent sounded German to me. I like it a lot, that is why I asked you. Look forward to your next video!

Yeah heather burning is huge for grouse shooters and it's terribly damaging to peat not to mention any plants growing amongst it that isn't heather sadge

Actually I think we agree! I mention those great reforesting efforts at the end, there’s lots to be optimistic about. I hope I didn’t imply that the land was originally cleared for sheep and grouse, you’re right on the history. My intention is to show that the landscape that people generally assume is Scotland’s ‘natural’ or ‘default’ landscape is actually actively managed (e.g. for sheep and grouse hunting), and that it could easily be otherwise. So I think that all stakeholders (everyone, but especially Scottish residents) should be involved in a discussion about how best to balance the different options for the landscape, and make policy that gets things moving in that direction. Because very very few people, if anyone, would ‘choose’ the current balance. The forest might originally have been cleared because of the people’s needs for firewood and land for subsistence crops, but historically because of land ownership patterns (which are different to those on the Continent, with more land in fewer hands) this land transitioned to new uses (sheep and grouse) that are not a close representation of what would best suit all the humans and non-humans of Scotland. I’m from the Continent myself (German) and though you’re right that the general picture is similar (historically deforested), actually the UK and Ireland are at the most extreme end of the spectrum. Most European landscapes have far higher forest cover. If Scotland’s forests could be restored to similar levels as in Europe, I’d be delighted! Norway has a very similar history of early deforestation as well as a similar climate and geology to Scotland, and is a great example of how that history does not need to determine how the landscape looks today. Check out this article on the Scotland/Norway comparison! www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/blog/reforestation-in-norway-showing-whats-possible-in-scotland-and-beyond

@@alexandrareuter327 Thank you so much for sharing the link 💚 Do you know which part of Scotland the trees get planted from Established Titles? It says they have signed the Tree Charter that is coordinated by The Woodland Trust…so I assume they are planting trees in Western Scotland but not sure. I’d like to know because I’m going to make a purchase and want to know where the trees are going to be planted 🙂 Thanks so much for all that you do 🙏💚✨

@@blossominglotus2348 Established titles have be found to be a scam, a venture capital based in Hong Kong. Hope that helps.

@@ericmcwilliams7629 Established Titles are not necessarily a scam, they've just been misinterpreted. The problem is with the wording; Buying a plot of land from Established Titles will not officially make you a Lord or Lady, nor will the plot bought make you a land owner as it is deemed too small. Established Titles also do not plant the trees on the plots. The way Established Titles works is that they donate the money to tree planting charities like TREES and One Tree Planted, and have done so thousands of times already. For this work, they were awarded the 'Best Green Business Award in Scotland' for 2021. So, perhaps, giving your money to One Tree Planted, for example would achieve the same effect, cutting out the middle man, so to speak. However, charities like One Tree Planted plant trees all over the world, not just in Scotland.