By Lyndsey Dodds, Oceans Recovery Policy Manager at WWF Scotland
Did you hear our exciting news from the Firth of Forth?
After an absence of nearly 100 years, European flat oysters are making a comeback to the Firth of Forth thanks to the innovative project Restoration Forth. Three years in, recent monitoring shows promising results, giving hope for the future of these brilliant little ecosystem engineers. An amazing 85% of the oysters monitored have survived and are settling in well to their new environment.
The future of marine restoration
Scotland is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, and oysters in the Firth of Forth have been extinct for over a century due to over-exploitation. Oysters play a crucial part in the marine ecosystem as they help clean the water and provide a home to many other species. Similarly, seagrass meadows in the area were once a more common sight, providing nursery grounds for fish species and helping to store carbon.
This is why Scottish Environment LINK members WWF Scotland and Marine Conservation Society, and other organisations and communities came together in the Restoration Forth partnership to restore seagrass meadows and European flat oysters in the Firth of Forth.
Projects like Restoration Forth make a real difference to our natural world. But to drive further change, we need the Scottish Government to set bold targets for nature and put funding in place to help it recover.
Looking at the wider marine environment in Scotland, the road to scaling up marine restoration projects is long and at times paved with barriers such as complex licencing systems which unnecessarily burden willing communities who are keen to restore nature in their area.
We’re facing a nature and climate emergency. To meet the scale of the challenge we need to rapidly remove barriers and secure high levels of funding.
This is how you can help
Restoration Forth has been achieved with hard work and the support of local communities, as well as generous funding from private and public sources, including nature recovery funds from the Scottish Government. To ramp up restoration efforts a supportive public policy environment for land and sea recovery needs to be mainstreamed across Scotland.
We now have a chance to ask for more funding to be allocated to nature recovery. The Scottish Government’s budget is due on 4 December, and it’s crucial that funding for nature is protected. Support Scottish Environment LINK’s Scotland Loves Nature campaign and sign today to tell the Scottish Government to protect nature funding.
Restoring precious marine ecosystems
Restoration Forth is in its third year and is going from strength to strength. Here are some of the successes we’ve seen so far:
🦪 30,638 oysters have been returned to the Firth of Forth.
🌱 156,000 seagrass seeds have been planted at East Lothian’s Belhaven Bay, Burntisland Sands and Dalmeny’s Drum Sands.
🦸 1,065 amazing volunteers have helped clean oysters and process seagrass seeds or supported the project in other ways.
Why not see for yourself what Restoration Forth has achieved in its first three years in this new video!