Fight to revive UK's rainforests

CONSERVATIONISTS are fighting to restore and expand the last remaining fragments of the UK's rare temperate rainforest as climate change looms.

- EMILY BEAMENT/PA WIRE

Wildlife experts describe temperate rainforest - a globally rare habitat that once swathed western coasts of England, Wales, Scotland, the island of Ireland and the Isle of Man - as the “jewel in the crown” of the country’s landscapes but warn they are a pale shadow of their former selves.

The area of Britain covered by these woodlands has shrunk from a fifth to just one per cent, having been cleared for timber, commercial forestry and agriculture.

They are now found only in fragments that face multiple threats including isolation, invasive species and rising temperatures which put their unique micro-climate at risk.

Conservationists say scaling up and connecting areas of healthy rainforest habitat, by planting native trees and enabling natural regeneration of the woodlands and species that grow in them, is crucial to making sure they support can survive in the face of climate change.