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Community action/Highland

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Munlochy Bay from Bay Farm, 4 September 2025. Author: Julian Paren
Location data
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Location Highland, Scotland
Coordinates 57° 30' 23.89" N, 5° 0' 13.81" W

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Highland.

Highland
Scotland
UK
Europe
Cosmolocal
  • News Rewilding project aims to restore peatland near Loch Ness, BBC News (Apr 15, 2026)
  • News The roof over Lochaber: Community Wealth Building in Fort William, scottishcommunityalliance.org.uk (Dec 16, 2025)
  • News Impactful new alliances boost rewilding in the Affric Highlands, rewildingeurope.com (Nov 21, 2025)
  • News “We believe our communities should be benefiting from the transition to renewable energy, not being left behind”, says Highland People’s Power, Dailt Alternative (Oct 22, 2025)
  • News The Pylon, the Turbine and the Black Black Blade [Bella Caledonia], Daily Alternative (Aug 26, 2025)
Read more
  • News Green jobs contributing £10.2bn to Scotland's economy, says CBI report, BBC News (May 26, 2026)
  • News Rewilding project aims to restore peatland near Loch Ness, BBC News (Apr 15, 2026)
  • News Who Owns Scotland 2025, andywightman.scot (Mar 23, 2026) — 83% of rural land is possessed by private entities - and a tiny fraction by communities and non-profits
  • News Record-breaking heat and dry spring leave parts of England without water, reuters.com (May 29, 2026)
  • News Britain’s green transition should belong to everyone. Why is Labour so intent on stopping us having our say? George Monbiot, theguardian.com (May 27, 2026)
  • News The English restaurant turning hospitality on its head, positive.news (May 27, 2026) — At a pay-as-you-can restaurant in Stroud, radical hospitality and good food are bringing strangers together
  • News Amsterdam, along with other major European cities, bans public adverts for meat and fossil fuels [BBC], Daily Alternative (May 22, 2026)
  • News How reindeer herds, nature and Sámi culture can thrive when forests are restored across northern Europe, theconversation.com (May 15, 2026)
  • News Rewilding giants: captive elephants rehomed in Europe’s first sanctuary, theguardian.com (May 07, 2026)
  • News Amsterdam, along with other major European cities, bans public adverts for meat and fossil fuels [BBC], Daily Alternative (May 22, 2026)
  • News Solidarity fields in Syria: Reviving local seed production, globalvoices.org (May 21, 2026) — A community garden on Damascus's edge is quietly rebuilding Syria's agricultural memory
  • News How reindeer herds, nature and Sámi culture can thrive when forests are restored across northern Europe, theconversation.com (May 15, 2026)

Networks and sustainability initiatives

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  • Eigg community action
  • Kyle & Lochalsh Community Trust, aiming to achieve the sustainable regeneration of our community, managed by the local community and organised on democratic principles, independent but seek to work in partnership with other public, private and voluntary organisations. Kyle & Lochalsh Community Trust on youtube.com, added 15:29, 5 November 2025 (UTC)
  • Knoydart Foundation, Community run charity with a mission to develop a sustainable model based on Community, Climate Action and Biodiversity

The Knoydart Foundation was established in 1997 to take ownership of the 17,500-acre (7,100 ha) Knoydart Estate which makes up much of the peninsula, including the village of Inverie. The Foundation, which is a registered charity under Scottish law, bought the estate in 1999. It is a partnership of local residents, the Highland Council, the Chris Brasher Trust, and the John Muir Trust. The foundation aim is to "manage the Knoydart Estate as an area of employment and settlement on the Knoydart Peninsula without detriment to its natural beauty and character and to seek and encourage the preservation of its landscape, wildlife, natural resources, culture and rural heritage."

  • Transition Black Isle, part of the worldwide Transition movement helping Black Isle communities thrive in the face of climate change and disruption to global resources, added 16:20, 14 February 2024 (UTC)
Cosmolocal discovery club

Each week 3 different short videos from across the UK or world.

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Future Rural Voices: perspectives on the countryside’s future
Authors: Campaign to Protect Rural England, 2.35 mins.
Date: 2026-05-07
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Local Power, Lower Bills: Up the Energy!
Authors: Community Energy England, 1.38 mins.
Date: 2026-03-10
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Tiree - This is Community Wealth Building
Authors: Scottish Community Alliance, 3.44 mins.
Date: 2025-11-18

Rural sustainability UK, Community energy UK, Community action/Argyll and Bute / ...This week's featured Global videos / ... read more about Cosmolocalism

Events

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Scotland
UK and international
  • Event Jan 18, 2026 (Sun) — (hashtag)PowerShift: The Real Energy Question (at Celtic Connections), Glasgow, thealternative.org.uk

UK events

  • Event Jun 1 - 7, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Volunteers Week, celebrating and saying thank you to the millions of volunteers across the UK, volunteersweek.org
  • Event Jun 1 - 7, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Neighbourhood Watch Week, ourwatch.org.uk
  • Event Jun 5 - 8, 2026 (Fri - Mon) — The Big Lunch, the first weekend in June every year, everyone is invited, anyone can join in and whatever food people bring to the table is there to be shared, edenprojectcommunities.com
  • Event Jun 6 - 14, 2026 (Sat-Sun) — Great Big Green Week, celebrating communities taking action to tackle climate change and protect green spaces, greatbiggreenweek.com
  • Event Jun 07, 2026 (Sun) — Open Farm Sunday, farmsunday.org
  • Event Jun 8 - 14, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Bike Week, annual celebration showcasing cycling and how brilliant it is!, cyclinguk.org
  • Event Jun 8 - 14, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Carers Week, carersweek.org
  • Event Jun 15 - 21, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Better Transport Week, annual, week-long celebration of sustainable transport, bettertransport.org.uk
  • Event Jun 15 - 21, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Refugee Week, refugeeweek.org.uk
  • Event Jun 15 - 21, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Loneliness Awareness Week, lonelinessawarenessweek.org
  • Event Jun 18, 2026 (Thu) — Clean Air Day, actionforcleanair.org.uk
  • Event Jun 19 - 21, 2026 (Fri - Sun) — The Great Get Together, annual celebration organised by The Jo Cox Foundation, helping unite people, bridge divides, and tackle loneliness, while showing the collective power we have as a community, jocoxfoundation.org
  • Event Jun 29 - Jul 3, 2026 (Mon - Fri) — National Co-production Week, scie.org.uk

UK community action events

Global or international events

  • Event Jun 03, 2026 (Wed) — World Bicycle Day, The bicycle is a "symbol of sustainable transport and conveys a positive message to foster sustainable consumption and production, and has a positive impact on climate." (United Nations), June 3 each year, un.org
  • Event Jun 05, 2026 (Fri)World Environment Day, June 5, annually, worldenvironmentday.global
  • Event Jun 08, 2026 (Mon) — World Oceans Day, June 8 each year, worldoceanday.org
  • Event Jun 12, 2026 (Fri) — World Day Against Child Labour, every year on June 12, ilo.org
  • Event Jun 17, 2026 (Wed) — World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, each June 17, un.org
  • Event Jun 21 and all of June — World Localization Day, worldlocalizationday.org
  • Event Jun 22, 2026 (Mon) — World Rainforest Day, June 22 is World Rainforest Day, worldrainforestday.org

2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events

Highland video

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Nevis Centre - This is Community Wealth Building
Authors: Scottish Community Alliance, 3.44 mins.
Date: 2025-12-16
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Lochalsh Collaborates Community Action Plan 1
Authors: Kyle & Lochalsh Community Trust, 5.43 mins.
Date: 2022-09-28
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2019 Highlights, Aigas Field Centre
Authors: AigasFieldCentre, Aug 26, 2019
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Community Power: The Dingwall Wind Co-op
Authors: Friends of the Earth Scotland, Aug 11, 2014
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Velocity - a Climate Challenge Fund film
Authors: Scottish Government
Date: 2014-04-24

Community energy

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Community resources

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  • Velocity, social enterprise based in Inverness since 2012, combining three worlds; a vegetarian café, bicycle workshop and range of projects to promote health, wellbeing and sustainability.

Cycling activism

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Biodiversity

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Aigas Field Centre is a nature centre based at the home of naturalist and author Sir John Lister-Kaye, House of Aigas. The centre was opened in 1977 by ecologist Sir Frank Fraser Darling, and provides nature-based holidays for adults and environmental education services for school children. It is located at Aigas, next to the River Beauly, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) west of Beauly and 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands.

House of Aigas, once a Victorian sporting estate, was owned by the Gordon-Oswalds, who added the Victorian extensions to what was an 18th-century Tacksman's house. The house was then owned by Inverness County Council as an old people's home, before Lister-Kaye persuaded them to sell it to him.

Aigas began a beaver demonstration project in 2006. Two Eurasian beavers were released into a 200-acre enclosure, which includes a loch and surrounding woodland. The beavers have since built lodges and had a number of kits.

Aigas was host to a series of the BBC's live-action nature documentary, Autumnwatch in October 2012 and Winterwatch in January 2013.

House of Aigas and Field Centre's charitable arm, The Aigas Trust for Environmental Education, hosts over 5,000 school children a year.

Rewilding

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  • Affric Highlands, Making Scotland a wilder place. added 17:40, 28 November 2025 (UTC)

Affric Highlands is a 30-year collaborative initiative by Trees for Life and Rewilding Europe who are working to restore woodland, peatland and riverside habitats in the Scottish Highlands.

In June 2022, Affric Highlands was recommended for UN flagship status by the Scottish and UK governments. W

In August 2008 Trees for Life purchased the 10,000 acre Dundreggan Estate in Glenmoriston, in the Scottish Highlands – one of the largest areas of land in the UK to be bought for forest restoration.

Dundreggan, lying on the north side of Glenmoriston to the west of Loch Ness, is home to declining species such as black grouse and wood ants. It contains areas of ancient woodland, including one of Scotland's best areas of juniper as well as significant areas of dwarf birch. It was previously managed as a traditional sporting estate for many years, and heavy grazing by sheep, goats, and deer has prevented the healthy growth of woodland and other natural habitats.

Trees for Life's long-term plan will see Dundreggan restored to a wild landscape of diverse natural forest cover, with the return of native wildlife. In 2020, golden eagles, a spectacular bird of prey, returned to breed at the estate for the first time in 40 years. Trees for Life also engages a larger, more diverse audience with the natural and cultural heritage of the Highlands through their Dundreggan Rewilding Centre, a world-class, environmentally sensitive facility that serves as a gateway to the wider landscape. W

News archive

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  • News Kelp help? How Scotland’s seaweed growers are aiming to revolutionise what we buy, theguardian.com (Jun 13, 2024)
  • News All hands to the pumps: the colourful rise of community-owned pubs, positive.news (Mar 05, 2024)
  • News The Scottish Gaelic concept of Dúthchas urges that people and nature are deeply entangled. Let it guide the path to land reform, Daily Alternative (Feb 25, 2024)

About Highland

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Highland (Scottish Gaelic: Gàidhealtachd, pronounced [ˈkɛːəl̪ˠt̪əxk]; Scots: Hieland) is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in both Scotland and the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the 2011 census. It has land borders with the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, Moray and Perth and Kinross. The wider upland area of the Scottish Highlands after which the council area is named extends beyond the Highland council area into all the neighbouring council areas plus Angus and Stirling.

The Highland Council is based in Inverness, the area's largest settlement. The area is generally sparsely populated, with much of the inland area being mountainous with numerous lochs. The area includes Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles. Most of the area's towns lie close to the eastern coasts. Off the west coast of the mainland the council area includes some of the Inner Hebrides, notably the Isle of Skye.

Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands.

The population of Inverness grew from 40,969 in 2001 to 46,969 in 2012, according to World Population Review. The Greater Inverness area, including Culloden and Westhill, had a population of 56,969 in 2012. In 2016, it had a population of 63,320. Inverness is one of Europe's fastest growing cities, with a quarter of the Highland population living in or around it. In 2008, Inverness was ranked fifth out of 189 British cities for its quality of life, the highest of any Scottish city.

See also

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Page data
Keywords Sustainable community action
SDG SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities
Authors Phil Green
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language English (en)
Related 0 subpages, 1 pages link here
Redirects Highland community action
Views 14 page views (analytics)
Created February 14, 2024 by Phil Green
Last edit April 27, 2026 by Phil Green
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