The Amazon’s tropical rainforest is a household name but not many know about the damp, lush rainforests in the UK. Also known as Atlantic or Celtic rainforest, this special habitat, pockets of which are found in the west of Scotland and Wales, Lake District and into southwest England, is incredibly rare. In fact, they are thought to be more threatened than tropical rainforests. Source: Timberbiz
Britain’s rainforests, which used to cover a fifth of Britain now cover just 1%, they range from mountains to lowlands and have an array of diversity and they are facing catastrophic threats. Many are choked with non-native conifers, rhododendron ponticum and cherry laurel.
They are being damaged by over grazing, and climate change is taking its toll on moisture levels. Air pollution is killing the fragile lichens and bryophytes, and tree disease is decimating the diverse canopy.
The Woodland Trust is highlighting the plight of its special rainforests.
“A healthy temperate rainforest is perfect for scarce plants, lichens and fungi, as well as remarkable birds and mammals. Such strange species lurk there like the Graphis scripta, or script lichen which literally looks like hieroglyphics, and Lobariapulmonaria tree lungwort , which looks like the inside of lungs and was thought to be a treatment for lung ailments by Anglo Saxons/medieval peoples,” Eleanor Lewis, the Woodland Trust’s rainforest lead in the south west, said.
“A good example of this habitat could contain over 200 different species of bryophytes and 100-200 species of lichen. Unfortunately, they are wonderful, rare habitats that are under a serious threat and Britain has an international responsibility to protect many of these species due to their scarce global distribution.”
The Trust is part of the Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest – a voluntary partnership of organisations committed to collaborating for the benefit of Scotland’s rainforest and a similar alliance in its infancy in the southwest of England. The Trust is also pushing the UK Government to realise its pledge to bring the majority of ancient woodlands into restoration by 2030, which includes rainforests.
The Trust owns several woods on the western seaboard of the British Isles from the lost world of Ausewell Wood in Devonto Cwm Mynach in Snowdonia, Wales and Crinan Wood in Argyll, Scotland, where remarkably 245 species of lichen have recently been recorded.
Lichens are in important indicator of the health of a wood, which is important as the Trust’s recent State of Trees and Woods report stated that just 7% of woodlands are in “good condition”.
Across the UK, several components influence the condition and species present at each rainforest site. The biodiversity of rainforests in southwest England for example differ markedly to those in northwest Scotland. Essentially the key factor in what makes a rainforest is the amount of rain it receives each year and relatively mild temperatures year-round.
