Hutton project launches website to help broaden understanding of Cairngorms biodiversity – focusing on Gaelic language and culture, montane woodland and gender
The James Hutton Institute, Scotland’s pre eminent interdisciplinary research institute for sustainable land, crop and natural resource management, has launched a new website to help understand biodiversity in the Cairngorms and beyond, with a focus on Gaelic, montane woodlands and gender.
The website, launched as part of the Restoryation Cairngorms project and informed by workshops and other events with the Cairngorms Connect partnership, brings together over 40 contributors – including artists, scientists, storytellers, inclusion professionals and conservation practitioners – to explore stories and perspectives about our environment and connections with it that are often overlooked. The project’s aim is to make these stories more visible in biodiversity research, policy and management.
In addition to videos, the website includes an interactive map, allowing users to explore how the stories catalogued relate to different places in the Cairngorms.
The researchers behind the project chose to focus on gender, montane woodland and Gaelic as these three interlinking themes can give us an idea of how landscapes have changed, and how they were used in the past. For example, understanding that the Gaelic place name Cnoc na Craoibhemeans Hill of the Tree reveals that there may have once been montane woodland in the area.
Meanwhile, understanding that an area was once home to a women’s lumber camp can provide useful context about how the land was previously used.
The website also details stories of how the land is used and understood today.
The researchers aim to use the website to promote greater understanding and inclusion in biodiversity research and management, including amongst land managers, policymakers and other decisionmakers.
The website can be accessed here: restoryation.hutton.ac.uk.
Dr Katrina Brown, leader of the Restoryation Cairngorms project, said:”Sharing stories can support biodiversity management for the future by allowing a deeper understanding and more inclusive and constructive dialogue between very different ways of knowing and engaging with the land and invites it to happen sensitively without tokenism.”