Communities and nature working together
The Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape is one of the largest landscape-scale conservation initiatives in Europe, aiming to benefit the land, people and local economy in the north west of Scotland.
It’s 2050; the communities of Coigach and Assynt are working together to achieve a truly living landscape through improved understanding of their environment and the impacts of climate change; shared active management providing a diverse range of connected and resilient habitats; creation of local employment and training opportunities, and building on the communities’ strong cultural heritage linked to the land.
What does the programme involve?
Working with landowners and local people, the Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape aims to restore the health of the whole ecosystem by improving and reconnecting habitats (especially native woodlands) and creating rural employment and volunteering opportunities.
The Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape Partnership Scheme is a project comprising 14 partner organisations, of which the Scottish Wildlife Trust is the lead partner. The Partnership comprises community land-owners, community interest groups, charitable land-owners, private land-owners and charitable membership organisations. Collectively these Partners are committed to delivering a Scheme comprising 28 individual projects over five years to September 2021.
HLF’s Landscape Partnership Scheme programme identifies nine outcomes which the scheme’s collective projects must achieve:
- Heritage is better managed, in better condition and identified / recorded.
- People have developed skills, learnt about heritage and volunteered time.
- Communities have reduced environmental impacts, more engagement with heritage and the area will be a better place to work, live and visit.
You can find out more about the Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape in the first episode of our Words of the Wild podcast series.
Who are the partners?
The Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape is a partnership project between the Assynt Foundation, Culag Community Woodland Trust, Eisg Brachaidh Estate, John Muir Trust, Kylesku estate, Tanera Mor and the Scottish Wildlife Trust. These landowners have joined forces to work together to deliver one of the largest ecosystem restoration projects ever undertaken in the UK – an aspirational 50-year plan to bring woodland connectivity, species-rich flora and fauna, and economic growth back to the Scottish uplands.
