Nature doesn't stand still, and neither can our laws. It’s time for a dynamic approach that lets Scotland’s nature come bursting back to life.
🔗 Read the full statement from the Scottish Rewilding Alliance here: www.rewild.scot/rewilding-ne...
📷 Mark Hamblin / Tierney Lloyd
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To truly heal our landscape, we must move beyond static protection.
We need to ‘protect the best’ - defend our most vibrant remaining patches of nature - and ‘restore the rest’, by empowering land managers to jumpstart natural processes where nature has been pushed to the brink.
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From statutory nature targets to long-awaited deer management reform, Scotland’s legal framework will now better support nature recovery. This is a moment to celebrate. 🥳
But the real work happens on the ground.
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A split-screen graphic that says "PROTECT THE BEST" on the left and "RESTORE THE REST” on the right. On the sunlit forest with autumn leaves is shown under a white heart icon. On the right, a rugged mountain valley is shown under a white icon of a hand holding a sprouting plant. A teal diagonal line separates the two landscapes.
Huge news for Scotland’s nature! 🏴 🌳🦅🪱 🍄
The Natural Environment Bill has officially been voted into law, marking a landmark victory for people and nature.
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Photo of a mountain hare with the text 'no question too wild - Hope for Nature Hustings'
Join The Scottish Rewilding Alliance in Pitlochry on 20 March - World Rewilding Day - for the Hope for Nature Hustings to find out.
Book your free space here ➡️ hopefornature.eventbrite.com
📷 Mark Hamblin
How will they respond when faced with difficult conversations and tough decisions? What is their vision for the future of Scotland's natural world?
And... do they have hope?
But we aren't just here to witness this decline. We're here to respond to it. To do that, you've got to have hope.
Rewilding is the ultimate expression of hope - responding to a crisis with radical action.
How will Scotland's next batch of elected representatives handle this?
In 100 days, Scotland goes to the polls. 🗳️
I worry that this election will barely feature nature, with so much else - rightly - on people's minds.
It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the state of humanity, not to mention our declining natural world. 🧵
Three Steps to give Scotland’s rural communities a stake in the forests they live beside #rewilding #nature #wildlife #biodiversity #ecology #environment #habitats #conservation #climatechange #Scotland insideecology.com/2026/01/23/t...
Really hope this question comes up at a #LynxToScotland event.
🐈
Photo of a woman holding her hand up, with text that says: no question too wild - Hope for Nature Hustings - 20 March 2026 World Rewilding Day - Pitlochry Festival Theatre Perthshire
Join us on #WorldRewildingDay 20 March 2026 in Pitlochry for Scotland’s first ever rewilding hustings - where you ask the questions, and politicians answer.
#HopeForNature #RewildingNation
👉 Book here: eventbrite.pulse.ly/ihogwxtp0m
#RewildingNation
📷 Colin Hattersley
Still open as far as I know! They're not open every day though.
By supporting the Bike Station’s #EverydayHeroes campaign, you can help more people access cycling.
The Bike Station empowers children, young people, and families to get on bikes and… travel in time.*
🦸♀️ www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/everyday-h... 🦸♀️
*in a manner of speaking
That’s over 400 extra hours magically added to my life -
time to spend with the kids, see friends, volunteer, do chores, have fun… or, most likely, stand around at the playpark.
And I’ve not had to carry any heavy bags while corralling two children.
Talk about life-changing!
My journey to the school gates: 7 minutes on the bike → 20 minutes by bus
Supermarket trip: 10 minutes on the bike → 30 minutes by bus
Across the city: 25 minutes on the bike → 60 minutes by bus
So cycling is three times faster than the bus, for me.
Since I started transporting myself, my kids, and my stuff by bike, I’ve spent 232 hours on the bike and travelled 2,750 miles.
Nearly 10 days of travel time, through sun, wind, and rain. 🌞🍃🌧️
And if I wasn’t cycling… I’d be on the bus.
The biggest impact on my life from cycling isn’t health, fitness or saving the planet.
It’s the ability to time travel.
⏲️ 🪄 🚲 ⚡ 🌀
Go here to donate to @thebikestation.bsky.social's #EverydayHeroes campaign:
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/everyday-h...
Or read on to find out more... 🧵
With other amendments weighing in on horticultural peat, urban gulls, non-native goats, rural crime, venison, changes to protected areas and game birds, it's a beast of a bill.
...but whether it's fierce or meek will still be up to Scotland's next government. 👀
🏞️ It's also clear that we are still grappling with what a national park is truly for. The progress our parks have made on nature recovery is commendable - but they could do so much more, given the chance.
🐟 The amendments on marine planning, protection and enforcement from across opposition parties reveal the deep dissatisfaction with current marine policy and legislation.
🦌 Ecological understanding lies behind the bill's provisions on managing deer numbers. As the need for radical action to restore nature grows ever stronger, perhaps other ideas - like following our European neighbours in reintroducing the Eurasian lynx - will rise up our government's agenda.
🎯 When we set targets that focus on habitat extent or the number of a single species, we miss out on so much - ecosystems are more than a sum of their parts. They are wild, rich, interconnected systems and we need better ways of measuring their health.
🌎 But it's even more fantastic to see natural processes, ecosystem health, restoration of degraded ecosystems & ecological connectivity in amendments. Viewing policy through this lens is critical to understanding the radical actions we need to take to restore nature - and to talking about them, too.
🦪 And good to see our less glamorous species in there - a native oyster may not be well suited to a photoshoot, but it's a critical keystone species, providing habitat for other animals and filtering water.
🐿️ Charismatic species are par for the course - it's hard to deny the power of a red squirrel, a whale or a lynx.
But it's great to see keystone species referenced in the amendments - some animals have an outsized impact on the world around them, & their absence causes devastating ripple effects.
There are signs of life - but the nature recovery targets this bill sets up will largely be created and carried out under a new government after May 2026.
So we need this bill to be as future-proof as possible. 📡
And we need political parties that really understand the importance of nature. 💚
With 300+ amendments to the Natural Environment Bill lodged by MSPs, it’s clear politicians want to make their mark on Scotland’s nature laws.
But will this bill put us on track to meet our international obligations to protect 30% of Scotland for nature and restore 30% of degraded ecosystems? 🌱🤔🧵
We need a faster, fairer, more predictable and more supportive process for future translocations and reintroduction projects. Nature can bounce back, given a helping hand.
Is this a nature emergency or not?
🌍🥵➡️🦫➡️🪵🌊🏞️ ➡️ 🌍❄️💚
The irrepressible Tom Bowser has set out in the National how NatureScot put the brakes on moving beavers from Tayside to Affric.
⬇️
www.thenational.scot/comment/2558...
These delays were more than just being cautious about consequences - institutional and political obstacles were put in place.
Scotland’s public bodies need to be firmly on the side of nature now.
As climate breakdown accelerates and our ecosystems crack under the pressure, we need all our institutions to act - fairly, but swiftly - in the name of nature.
