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Once found all along Europe’s Atlantic coast the temperate rainforest has dwindled over thousands of years. And the west coast of Scotland is one of the last strongholds of this spectacular habitat with its array of lichens, fungi, mosses and ferns – some found nowhere else in the world. But Scotland’s rainforest is in trouble. As little as 75,000 acres remain – a mere 2% of Scotland’s woodland cover. Now a cash crisis has emerged in a bid to make the first wave of new steps to save the ancient forest in Scotland which is being lost to overgrazing by deer and livestock, invasive plant species and disease.
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They are found on Scotland’s west coast, in the ‘hyper-oceanic’ zone, where cool summers, mild winters, wet conditions and clean air provide ideal conditions for some of the world’s rarest mosses, liverworts, lichens, fungi and ferns.
Argyll is home to more than half of all Scotland s temperate rainforest
Argyll is home to more than half of the remaining rainforest habitat in Scotland.
One woodland in the region supports a quarter of all mosses and liverworts found in the UK, with as many as 200 species inhabiting a single ravine near Knapdale.
But these rainforests are at risk, with forests under increasing threat from invasive alien species, fragmentation and poor management.