The Bunloit project (Bunloit.com), Jeremy Leggett’s latest visionary mission to create an inhabited, truly sustainable nature reserve on a 511-hectare estate on the west slopes of Loch Ness, is starting to gather pace.
This latest Scottish rewilding project has been launched just as the Scottish Government is set to develop a new strategy for future land management, including the need for better environmental stewardship and new rural employment opportunities.
Jeremy explains that over the next ten years, the initial “success” of Bunloit will be measured in terms of four complementary goals, a “meaningful” increase in both carbon sequestration and biodiversity across the estate, maximising employment in land management, and perhaps the most challenging, the project must be self-sustaining, generating ethical profits to support the management of the estate. A full 12-month stakeholder consultation began in February 2020, with a “mass outreach” phase now drawing to a close (www.Bunloitideas.com).
Establishing the baselines for the required carbon and biodiversity accounting is itself a massive undertaking and Jeremy is candid about the need for more research in these areas. But he points out that Bunloit can be a research leader, an “open laboratory” for climate and biodiversity researchers. He explains that “our first research project has involved partnering with the environmental consultancy Ecosulis in a project we call Credit Nature. This will quantify the natural capital on Bunloit, using a variety of scientific techniques, and use the data to build a platform that will make it easier for other landowners to undertake natural-capital accounting.”
Jeremy has been encouraged by early feedback on the feasibility of establishing biodiversity baselines at Bunloit, critical to then enabling the measurement of biodiversity change over time.
The Bunloit project is also reaching out to the wider NGO community such as The Woodland Trust and Trees for Life to utilise their expertise in areas such as broadleaf woodland management. Bunloit is home to some of the northernmost ancient oak woodlands in the UK, and spectacular birch and Scots pine dominated woodlands.
It is likely that existing areas of non-native coniferous woodland will be felled, since as Jeremy explains “some of Bunloit’s “commercial” plantations are sorry spectacles: crammed and spindly conifers planted decades ago atop peat, easily blown down in gales today. These are likely to be felled early in the decade of the mission. Other plantations, notably on the Loch Ness slope, contain healthier trees.”
Jeremy has been encouraged by early feedback on the feasibility of establishing biodiversity baselines at Bunloit, critical to then enabling the measurement of biodiversity change over time. Plantlife UK, the Highland Biological Recording Group, and the Natural Capital Laboratory have all argued that Bunloit Estate is well suited to traditional biodiversity monitoring and assessment techniques, alongside pioneering approaches such as environmental-DNA (eDNA). The experience of other rewilding initiatives suggests that increasing the mix of grazers such as Highland cattle will lead to both greater biodiversity and increasing carbon content in soils.
A key element of the “sustainability” of Bunloit, is the importance of local employment, skills, and trades. Jeremy is passionate about this issue having been a founding member of the original Green New Deal group back in 2008. He emphasises that “I am a firm believer that that people must be an integral component of a national programme to help nature recover from historical mismanagement. This means rural trades, jobs, and zero-carbon homes in and part of the healing landscapes.”
A small team is being hired to execute the Bunloit plan. Roles include forestry, fence care, deer management, and tour-guiding of groups of eco-tourists. Employment of these “Bunloit Rangers” will give preference to local recruits. Subject to “critical mass approval in the local community,” Bunloit may also see the building of a very limited number of passivhaus eco-homes and businesses, all part of an onsite renewables powered hub for new skills and trades.
There is no question that the Bunloit vision is inspiring, but Jeremy is aware that there may be some who remain cynical about his motives. He replies that he is not a “developer,” but a “campaigner for the recovery of nature and abatement of the climate and biodiversity crises.” Bunloit is a “300 year project, which will use covenants to protect in perpetuity the rewilding, biodiversity gain, carbon sequestration and community centricity inherent in the mission of the estate.” Many will be watching the Bunloit story with great interest and wishing him every success.
