The group will be based in a former estate in Wester Ross.
A new charity has been launched as the latest step in protecting the rare and threatened Scottish rainforest.
The Scottish Rainforest Centre has been unveiled as the new name for the historic Couldoran House, which will operate as a hub to conserve its natural surroundings.
The estate house in Wester Ross was purchased by the Woodland Trust in 2021 as part of its plan to buy the surrounding land and the neighbouring Ben Shieldaig - which was bought in 2019.
The site is set in the spectacular Wester Ross National Scenic Area and the Wester Ross UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, part of Scotland’s rainforest zone.
It contains existing native woodlands including Scottish rainforests, plus land suitable for the creation of new woods.
The Scottish Rainforest Centre is the brainchild of internationally renowned environmental lawyer and activist Kathryn Rae who has launched a new Scottish charity to purchase the house from Woodland Trust Scotland.
The two organisations will work in cooperation – The Trust conserving and expanding the woodland in the wider area while the Centre focuses on education and hosting visiting researchers.
Kathryn said: “Plans are still being developed, however, we aim to provide an ideal venue for events, workshops and meetings. Accommodation options will be available for volunteers, students and academics.
“We want to host scientists working in the rainforest zone, but I am also very keen that local schoolchildren visit regularly and children from cities can stay and explore the rainforest and become involved in its conservation. The Centre will also be available to the local community for non-woodland events.
“As a long-time supporter and life member of the Woodland Trust I was very excited by their rainforest conservation plans out on the estate – but when I saw the house I could see there was another job to be done; an interesting opportunity to support rainforest conservation.
“People have been waking up to the fact that Scotland has its own temperate rainforest along the west coast, and that action is needed to stop it disappearing. It seems to me that this emerging movement needs a physical hub and Couldoran House fits the bill.”
Australian-born Kathryn Rae is an international environmental lawyer. For 25 years she has run her own environmental legal and management consultancy working for the EU, World Bank, USAID, Asia Development Bank and many national governments.
With EU funding she established Regional Environmental Centres in the Caucasus and Ukraine and subsequently sat on their boards as the legal advisor.
She also co-founded and continues to manage the Wild Camel Protection Foundation which runs a captive wild camel breeding centre in the Gobi desert in Mongolia, and was part of the team which established the 375,000 square kilometre Lop Nur Arjin Shan Wild Camel National Nature Reserve in Xinjiang China.
Kathryn was a founding Trustee of Earth Capital Partners Foundation, the first UK foundation approved and registered with the aim of funding sustainability projects and research.
She worked on various projects on several Pacific islands which linked indigenous rights and sustainable use of land.
She has knowledge of both temperate rainforests in Scotland and tropical rainforests in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica.
Woodland Trust Scotland has been consulting locally on the future of the house and there is a good deal of enthusiasm for the idea of a rainforest centre. A drop in event was held this week to update people on the latest developments.
Estate manager Malcolm Turner of Woodland Trust Scotland said: “Kathryn is an inspiring woman with a huge amount of experience. She is the ideal person to drive forward plans for the house to makes a huge difference both locally and nationally.
“We bought Couldoran Estate because it has great potential for woodland creation. We can get on with that while the Scottish Rainforest Centre does a complimentary job educating. It is a marvellous fit.
“As responsible landowners and we hope, good neighbours we are looking into handing on some other parts of the estate, potentially for affordable housing. We are in discussions with the Communities Housing Trust to see what might be feasible. We recognise the need for community access to affordable land, access to affordable housing and empowerment of local communities to shape their own destinies.
“Scotland’s rainforest is one of our most precious habitats. It is as important as tropical rainforest, but even rarer. It is made up of the native woodlands found on our west coast in the ‘hyper-oceanic’ zone. High levels of rainfall and relatively mild, year-round temperatures provide just the right conditions for some of the world’s rarest bryophytes and lichens to form a lush green understory beneath the canopy.”
The ten-bedroom house was built in 1928 by the son of a local landowning family.
The new charity has raised funds from a number of private donors to acquire Couldoran House. It will seek further donations and grant funding to develop the concept and upgrade the building.
The Woodland Trust and Scottish Rainforest Centre will agree a framework of cooperation. A date has yet to be set for the opening of the Centre.
