Scotland is to get a new nature reserve thanks to the determined efforts of a rural community, which has completed one of the biggest grassroots land buyouts in the country’s history.
Under the aegis of the Langholm Initiative charity, the community raised £3.8m to buy 5,200 acres of land from the Duke of Buccleuch. The sale, agreed in October, was completed on Friday. It followed a six-month crowdfunding campaign that reached its target two days before the deadline.
At times, the scale of the challenge seemed impossible to comprehend. “We had from March to October to raise millions of pounds at the start of a global pandemic, for a project that had never been done before,” Kevin Cumming, a Langholm Initiative board member, told Positive News.
But with people reassessing their relationship with nature during lockdown, the Langholm Initiative captured the collective imagination. Donations came flooding in.
“There was a clear desire for this to succeed,” said Cumming. “Having over 4,000 people from all over the world donate to a crowdfunder is quite humbling. It’s an unbelievable achievement.”
Margaret Pool, chair of the Langholm Initiative, added: “Together we’ve achieved something which once seemed impossible. A new era begins for this special land.”
Other major funders that supported the project include South of Scotland Enterprise, John Muir Trust, The Carman Family Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation and The Bently Foundation.
Scotland to get new nature reserve as community ‘achieves impossible’
Under the aegis of the Langholm Initiative charity, the community raised £3.8m to buy 5,200 acres of land from the Duke of Buccleuch. The sale, agreed in October, was completed on Friday. It followed a six-month crowdfunding campaign that reached its target two days before the deadline.
At times, the scale of the challenge seemed impossible to comprehend. “We had from March to October to raise millions of pounds at the start of a global pandemic, for a project that had never been done before,” Kevin Cumming, a Langholm Initiative board member, told Positive News.
But with people reassessing their relationship with nature during lockdown, the Langholm Initiative captured the collective imagination. Donations came flooding in.
“There was a clear desire for this to succeed,” said Cumming. “Having over 4,000 people from all over the world donate to a crowdfunder is quite humbling. It’s an unbelievable achievement.”
Margaret Pool, chair of the Langholm Initiative, added: “Together we’ve achieved something which once seemed impossible. A new era begins for this special land.”
Other major funders that supported the project include South of Scotland Enterprise, John Muir Trust, The Carman Family Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation and The Bently Foundation.
Scotland to get new nature reserve as community ‘achieves impossible’