Bees, butterflies, beetles and other invertebrates will benefit with almost £160,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund being invested in an environmental project that will also deliver benefits for local businesses and communities from Perth to Dundee.
Carse of Gowrie Orchards: People for Pollinators is an ambitious partnership between Buglife Scotland and Tayside Biodiversity Partnership, the Scottish Apple Producers’ Group and Orchard Revival.
The project will protect and restore habitats that are able to feed pollinators across the seasons, and provide nesting and over-wintering opportunities for solitary bees and butterflies in particular. It will also support better connecting corridors between pockets of habitat to allow these essential and hard-working insects to move freely across the agricultural landscape.
The groundbreaking project, being delivered by Buglife Scotland, has also secured over £130,000 in support in awards from 10 other charitable bodies.
Tapping into local orchard revival, it recognises the special habitats ancient fruit trees create for a wealth of invertebrates from solitary bees to endangered butterflies and beetles. Working with landowners over the next three years to return 10 hectares of these wildlife islands to their former species richness and strengthen bug corridors between them, Buglife will engage with the communities and schools in the Carse of Gowrie and its bookend cities Perth and Dundee, with public awareness raising and skills building events, collaboration and volunteering days.
When considering the environment for all native invertebrates, the project will focus on twelve bee, hoverfly, butterfly and beetle species that should be common in the Carse but are rare or in decline, including priority butterfly species like the Northern Brown Argus (Aricia artaxerxes) and the Small Pearl Border Fritillary (Boloria selene). This project complements and connects with Buglife B-Lines initiatives around Tayside to ensure that the orchards are part of wider insect highways.
Commenting on the award, Buglife Conservation Officer, Neil Clapperton said: “We very much welcome the generous support of The National Lottery Heritage Fund and numerous charities who contributed to help us turn the surviving Carse of Gowrie orchards into oases of biodiversity and havens for pollinators. In partnership with landowners, farmers and communities this will be transformational and bring a greater public understanding of the importance of invertebrates to our food system and the wider environment.”
Catherine Lloyd, Biodiversity Co-ordinator, Tayside Biodiversity Partnership added: “This is such an exciting project, long awaited and now a reality. It ticks so many boxes and will be a true asset to the Carse of Gowrie. The Partnership is looking forward to helping wherever it can.”
Caroline Clark, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Director for Scotland said: “Thanks to National Lottery players the Buglife team and the farmers, growers, landowners, communities and local organisations they will be working with will be able to take a whole place approach as People for Pollinators.
“By engaging across Carse of Gowrie, Perth and Dundee they will join the dots to deliver lasting change that benefits pollinators and many other native species through these new and restored habitat areas.”
Patricia Rojas Bonzi, Project Manager at Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society Ltd. (SAOS) added: “The future of orchards depend not only on pollinators, but on the shared commitment of growers, researchers, and communities. When pollinators are protected and producers unite, apples and pears become more than fruit—they become the harvest of cooperation, which is what this project and SAOS is all about”
Catherine Drummond-Herdman, COGG, (Carse of Gowrie Group), Orchard Coordinator & Chair of the Scottish Apple Producers Group shared: “It is of supreme importance to focus on the wider biodiversity within our Carse orchards; linking up orchards with low and high level wildlife corridors ensure continuation and viability of so many different invertebrate and vertebrate communities. This is a fantastic initiative for the Carse – thank you Buglife!”
An Orchard Revival volunteer said, “It is a sad fact that the once-extensive Carse of Gowrie orchards, famous for the large-scale production of top fruit – pear, plum, and apples – have largely disappeared, leaving scattered remnants across the Carse landscape. Now is the time to act to safeguard and revive these orchards, and improve habitat connectivity to allow insect pollinators and other wildlife to move freely through the agricultural landscape.
One of our first tasks will be to map habitats and other features in the landscape that show where the connectivity gaps are, where pollinator ‘super highways’ can be established to help bugs to move more easily across the area. We wish the project team every success over the next three years.”
Orchard Revival concluded: “Orchard Revival is delighted to have been asked to support Buglife Scotland and partners in this exciting new project to engage with landowners, community groups and others to restore 10 hectares of traditional orchard habitat in the Carse of Gowrie. The project is an excellent fit with Orchard Revival’s aims to support grassroots organisations and their wider communities to recognise the multiple benefits and value of orchards.”
To stay in touch or find out how to volunteer and be involved in the Buglife Scotland Carse of Gowrie project, please contact Conservation Officer, Neil Clapperton, via the Carse of Gowrie project web page buglife.org.uk/projects/carse-of-gowrie-people-for-pollinators