Cairngorms landscape project to receive £12.5m in funding

A project which aims to preserve the Cairngorms landscape is among five schemes to receive a share of a £50m National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Cairngorms 2030: people and nature thriving together, has received nearly £12.5m for a scheme involving 45 organisations to tackle the climate and nature crises in the UK’s largest national park in the Scottish Highlands.

The scheme, which will be community-led, will include outdoor health programmes and the creation of a nature-based dementia centre and will boost nature through measures such as woodland expansion, peatland restoration, nature-friendly farming and sustainable transport.

Scottish Government minister for environment, biodiversity and land reform Mairi McAllan said with the Cop26 climate talks coming to Glasgow this year, “this project is a great example of community-based action to tackle the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss and to improve wellbeing”.

The Cairngorms project is one of three environmental projects and two heritage schemes to receive funds as part of the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Horizon Awards, which aim to support ambitious, innovative and transformational projects for UK heritage.

The other projects selected for funding include the UK’s first marine park in Plymouth, a major experiment in ‘wet farming’ in East Anglia, The International Slavery Museum in Liverpool and The Great Yarmouth Winter Gardens.

Ros Kerslake, chief executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said the awards followed a year in which the organisation had been focused on supporting heritage through the Covid emergency.

She said: “The pandemic has shown us all clearly what matters to us, particularly in relation to nature and climate change.

“This is a major priority for us as an organisation, and three of these projects will be transformational for the green environment.

“All five share qualities of huge ambition, significant collaboration and the prospect of life-changing benefits for people and places deserving of support from the National Lottery.”

Culture minister Caroline Dinenage said: “These hugely ambitious, exciting projects are not only protecting and preserving vital local heritage but are also creating jobs, supporting local communities and helping us to build back better from the pandemic.”