Already, areas of the Clashindarroch forest in the highlands of Scotland have been deforested and destroyed, with the approval of the Scottish Government, for wind farms. The Clashindarroch forest is extremely important, as it is one of the last remaining places where the Scottish Wildcats are living.
The Scottish Wildcat is critically endangered. There are thought to be as few a 30 Scottish Wildcats remaining in the wild today. Of those 30 Scottish Wildcats, a third of them are thought to exist in the Clashindarroch forest.
With such a low population, everything should be done to save the Scottish Wildcat. Saving the Scottish Wildcat means preserving their forest home, not destroying it. However, that is exactly what the Scottish Government has been doing: destroying the habitat of our most endangered animal for wind farms.
And worse: there could be more of this to come. There are proposals for a second Clashindarroch wind farm, which was proposed by the Swedish company Vattenfall. Vattenfall are the company which constructed the last wind farm in the Clashindarroch forest. As you can see from the picture from a clip from their website below, the first wind farm in the Clashindarroch has resulted in widespread deforestation; widespread deforestation of a forest where our most endangered mammal in the UK lives, and where a third of them live (or maybe now lived).
It’s unclear if, or how many Scottish Wildcats were killed through the deforestation of the Clashindarroch forest the first time of deforestation. However, since the destruction of the Clashindarroch forest the Scottish Wildcat has been declared ‘functionally extinct’, therefore, it seems more than likely that the deforestation of the Clashindarroch forest has had a really negative effect on the Scottish Wildcat and resulted in their functional extinction.
What About The Future Of The Scottish Wildcats?
There is a new story out that there will be a reintroduction of Scottish Wildcats in 2022. However, if we are serious about reintroducing wildcats and boosting their population, then we need to preserve and rebuild their natural habitat too. If we don’t preserve or rebuild their natural habitat, then reintroduction of the Scottish Wildcat will be a failure. That is why places like the Clashindarroch forest, their natural habitat, is so important to preserve rather than destroy.
We are at the start of a Sixth Mass Extinction event, the only thing that will prevent the Sixth Mass Extinction event from happening is is saving the last of our natural world and rewilding. The species extinction crisis is as important as climate change - we cannot live without wild animals and the natural world - that is why destroying our natural world for wind farms is damaging and makes no sense, because, if we don’t have a natural world, then we won’t have a healthy our stable climate.
Sources:
https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/212496/swedish-wind-firm-to-take-clashindarroch-ii-proposals-to-the-people/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-46617965
https://www.change.org/p/scottish-government-save-the-scottish-wildcat-by-protecting-clashindarroch-forest
https://powerplants.vattenfall.com/en/clashindarroch
https://group.vattenfall.com/uk/what-we-do/our-projects/clashindarroch