Biodiversity boost for Campbeltown as project receives £5,000 funding
A bid to boost biodiversity in Campbeltown is one of just 12 community projects across Scotland to share in nearly £60,000 of new funding.
South Kintyre Development Trust (SKDT) has been awarded £5,000 of Healthy Planet, Healthy People funding to support its “Rebuilding Biodiversity in Campbeltown” project.
The grant scheme was launched by the Williamson Trust, a charity that promotes the health of individuals through supporting healthy environments, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which recognises, supports and mobilises expertise from across academia, business and public service for the benefit of Scotland.
Healthy Planet, Healthy People grants are designed to support community-led research, with funding available for new and existing research projects that promote the health of individuals through fostering healthy environments and communities, and enabling access to healthy foods.
Through the Campbeltown project, SKDT aims to develop a practical, long-term plan addressing the loss of biodiversity within the town.
SKDT manager Eric Spence said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive an award from the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Williamson Trust to help us maintain and rebuild the biodiversity of our rural town.
“The funding will enable us to develop a practical, longterm plan to address the loss of biodiversity within our local area.
“We will grow and develop a biodiversity plan which will include wildlife and woodland corridors, urban greening, including more personal allotments and community gardens, and restoring natural areas like seashores, meadows, and woodlands providing vital sanctuaries for pollinators, birds, and other wildlife.
“We would not be able to achieve any of this without this support.”
Earlier this year, SKDT secured a five-year lease on the Kinloch Road-based “Gateway Garden”, and volunteers have been working hard to transform it into a prized community asset complete with raised beds for growing vegetables, herbs and wildlife-friendly plants.
Professor David E Salt FRSE, chairperson of the Williamson Trust, said he and all the charity’s trustees were “incredibly excited” by the very strong response that was received from communities across Scotland.
He said: “From the 40-plus applications received, we are proud to be able to fund 12 projects, supporting activities from island and Highland communities in the north, urban communities in the central belt, and rural communities in the south.
“We are encouraging an amazing array of projects spanning food, nature, and climate, all with the potential to deliver real solutions for Scottish communities.
“The level of creativity and ingenuity embedded in the projects is staggering.
“From food waste, the right to food and cooperative local growing, to rebuilding biodiversity and land rights, community street play, urban forests, and climate conversations as street theatre.
“The trust hopes this seed funding will deliver real change and lead to larger impacts going into the future.
“We are very excited to be working with these communities across Scotland to help them make a new and better future.”
Originally, the plan was to grant only 10 Healthy Planet, Healthy People awards but the strength of the applications was such that a further two projects are also being supported.
A total of £59,518 will be awarded to community research projects across Scotland, in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Inverness, Fife, Lewis, Orkney and Perth, as well as Campbeltown.
Professor Anne Anderson OBE FRSE, vice president of research at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, said: “This is the first time that the Royal Society of Edinburgh has supported this type of research, as the society broadens its range of research awards, and I feel that it is vital that we do so.
“The health of the individual and the health of the environment are inextricably linked, and it is my hope that these awards will now provide a boost to these exciting research groups which will lead to improvements in both.
“I very much look forward to following their progress and achievements over the next 12 months.”