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We’ve already lost nearly all of our rainforests: now we must come together to protect and restore these biodiverse havens before they’re gone forever.
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At Plantlife, we are leading the way in temperate rainforest research, restoration and celebration.
Dripping with lichens, spongey mosses cushioning the frequent sound of rain and trees towering up from a forest floor covered in ferns – the temperate rainforest is a magnificent place.
Did you know the temperate rainforest is one of the rarest habitats on Earth? We’ve already lost nearly all of our rainforests. Now it’s up to all of us to secure their future, before they’re gone forever.
Read on to find out how we are protecting these incredible habitats, as well as the vast array of species that call them home.
We’ve joined up in partnership with landowners, environmental charities and organisations to bring our skills and knowledge together and protect these incredible forests for the future.
We work in partnership in all of our rainforest projects – but we’re proud to have major roles in alliances in Scotland and Wales.
We are part of the Alliance for Wales’ Rainforest. Here we work in collaboration to highlight how important the rainforests of Wales are, as well as helping work towards the forests being positively managed.
Almost a year ago, in December 2024, our findings were a major contributor to the State of Wales’ Rainforest report, which was launched in the Senedd. This helped to raise awareness at the highest level.
These findings are now helping to formulate the work that is currently being undertaken in Wales’ rainforests.
We have been part of the Alliance for Scotlands’ Rainforest since it formed in 2017. Over the past 8 years, the Alliance has done great work, much of it led by Plantlife.
By 2023, we had collectively created 7 rainforest projects, launched guidance on public engagement and community involvement and raised awareness of these incredible habitats.
The Alliance has only grown in strength and numbers since it’s launch, and includes 25 partner organisations. There is now a total of 11 Focus Projects covering more than 300,000 hectares, which is about 15% of the entire rainforest zone.
The goal moving forwards is ambitious – to restore all of Scotland’s rainforest, and double it’s size by 2045.
We’re working from the tip of Cornwall to the top of Cumbria raising awareness, providing rainforest management training, addressing threats and protecting our precious species.
Funded by Natural England’s Species Recovery Capital Grant Scheme, we are working across Devon and Cornwall to protect temperate rainforests and help some of the very rare and threatened species that call them home.
The work includes halo thinning, glade creation and Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) control to create and improve habitat conditions and help different species.
We are also working in partnership on the Rainforest Restoration Project, which aims to increase the quality and resilience of temperate rainforests across the northwest and southwest of England.
Through this project, our aim is to inspire people to love and care for the rainforest – through outreach, training events and sharing practical advice on woodland management.
Find out more about the temperate rainforest here.
The UK’s precious, prehistoric rainforests are dangerously close to extinction due to invasive species, pollution and disease. But we cannot afford to lose them.
Will you join the national movement of people saving our magnificent rainforests? Please donate to rescue UK rainforests from extinction.
The UK is a rainforest nation and there are communities within these rainforests, but they are becoming less sustainable for the people that live there due to a lack of jobs and affordable housing. And rainforest projects to restore and expand the habitat, can’t be done without people.
Through our work in Scotland, we are a partner organisation of the Our Rainforest Futures Project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Through the project we are working to help bring new jobs, skills and knowledge-sharing to rainforest communities.
Through a process called translocation, we have been involved in saving rare species, including those found in our temperate rainforests.
Translocation is a process where a plant, or in this case a lichen, is taken, either from an inhospitable environment, a nursery where it has been propagated or a thriving population, and moved to a suitable location for them to thrive.
Deep in the heart of the rainforest in the Lake District, we discovered 2 locally rare lichen species at risk, as they were growing on an Ash tree infected with Ash Dieback.
Our experts translocated some of the lichen from the infected Ash tree to a nearby Hazel tree. Read the full story here.
There are a number of threats to this rare habitat – and one, you might recognise.
Rhododendron, Rhododendron ponticum, which is a popular woody plant for gardens, famed for its bright, large flowers, is an invasive non-native species, and its spread through our woodlands and temperate rainforests is causing untold damage.
Rhododendron produces lots of flowers, and each one of them can produce up to 7,000 seeds! These seeds spread from gardens and into habitats such as the temperate rainforest. And it’s not the only way Rhododendron can spread – it also roots from its branches allowing it to take more space. This hardy evergreen outcompetes much of the native flora we would find in our ancient woodlands. It reduces light, crowds out other plants and trees and reduces biodiversity.
Rhododendron now presents the single largest threat to our temperate rainforest ecosystems.
Our rainforest team has been working hard at sites across the UK, along with other environmental charities and landowners, to remove Rhododendron, along with other invasive species, to give our forests space to thrive.
Find out more about invasive species here.
In some areas, where it is appropriate, we have been working in partnership to create new rainforest habitat.
To do this, we have planted new trees, extending the rainforest at certain sites.
We’ve also created new wood pasture sites.
We recruited some 4-legged friends (cows) to help us manage rainforests.
We brought in livestock and used Nofence collar technology, to help manage grazing for conservation, in a much more natural way.
The cows were used to graze areas of thick Bracken and Bramble in woodlands and have proved successful in helping control competitive plants.
The introduction of grazing in habitats such as the temperate rainforest can also help increase biodiversity by creating disturbance to the ground.
There’s even studies that suggest grazing cattle could help to boost natural tree regeneration.
Read more about Nofence collars here.
Read how 2 lichens were saved, from a tree infected with ash dieback, in a translocation rescue mission in the temperate rainforest.
Did you know that the rainforest can glow in the dark? Or that it’s home to plants which were on the Earth before the dinosaurs?
An incredible story of returning one of England’s rarest lichens to its historic home – more than 350 miles away.
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