Our Purpose

Scotland's Moorland Forum strives to sustain and enhance the extent, diversity and range of habitats, species and enterprises encompassing moorland. The Forum wants to engender a greater awarness of these valuable habitats.

The Forum seeks to halt and reverse the loss of heather cover, and to find ways of enriching the overall interest of Scotland's moorland, not least its natural heritage. Almost a quarter of Scotland's heather cover has been lost since the 1940s. The restoration of moorland habitats and related species is a high priority for management action.

There is a long Scottish tradition of local stewardship of the land, based on both private and public funding sources. This needs to be built on to improve further the beauty, nature and social fabric of our moorlands.

The Forum continues to work with Scottish Government to implement Natura 2000 legislation, the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, and conservation management programmes to help to meet government and European targets.

We seek to eliminate all illegal practices, not least the persecution of birds of prey, and work, with the Scottish Government and land managers, towards adherence to all wildlife and countryside legislation.

As a key stakeholder, the Forum contributes to the passing of new legislation and the development and implementation of policies and initiatives in relation to moorland areas.

Our Partnership for Delivery 2008 was launched by Mike Russell, MSP, Minister for Environment, in March 2008. It is available as a pdf document and can be found on the Documents page of the website.