The Harmony Report - Issue 40 - 05.10.26

What if we built for the future we actually want?

There’s a particular kind of optimism I’m drawn to ... not the 'everything will be fine' kind of generalised positivity but the real, very practical kind that looks at something difficult like a species close to disappearing, a changing climate, young people leaving rural communities because opportunities feel too scarce and asks ... What could we put in place now that might make the future better?

All three stories in this week's Harmony Report come from Scotland and all three, in different ways, are about doing exactly that!

🐾 NATURE - Fifty wildcats are back in the Scottish Highlands

There was a lovely milestone announced last Monday ... The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland-led Saving Wildcats project has now released 50 wildcats into the Cairngorms National Park since releases began in 2023 and though the number is encouraging in itself, there's an even better part.

Female wildcats released through the programme have now given birth in the wild for three consecutive years - an early indication that the animals aren't simply surviving after release, but beginning to establish a population of their own. That's significant because the Scottish wildcat's position has been extraordinarily precarious. In 2019, the species was declared functionally extinct in the wild in Britain.

Then, on 22 September, NatureScot launched a new national strategy, developed by 26 organisations, with the long-term ambition of restoring wildcats to the point where they're thriving and expanding in Scotland by 2045.

There is still a very long way to go of course and wildcats remain critically endangered here. Releasing animals is only part of a much bigger picture involving habitat, land management, domestic cats and the communities living alongside them but I love what this story represents.

Extinction can sound like an inevitability once a species reaches a certain point but this project challenges that.

Sometimes recovery begins with deciding that decline isn't the only possible direction of travel.

🌳 EDUCATION - In Moray, school grounds are becoming part of the climate solution

Something else caught my attention during Climate Week Scotland.

Across Moray, pupils have been helping redesign their own school grounds to make them better for children, wildlife and a changing climate.

Over the past year, pupils involved in the Climate Ready Schools project have surveyed their grounds to understand the habitats already there and how prepared their schools are for things like hotter weather and heavier rainfall.

Now those observations are becoming physical changes and plans include native trees, hedges, wildflower meadows and ponds, creating shade and shelter, helping manage rainwater and providing new habitats for wildlife.

The first five schools are moving into groundworks this autumn, with more schools being developed alongside them.

Teachers and pupils have also been receiving practical outdoor-learning training, while children have taken part in workshops exploring climate optimism and that last bit feels particularly important because children hear a great deal about climate change and much of it is about the scale of the problem, but there's something quite different about being handed a clipboard, looking at your own playground and being asked, "What could we change here?"

Plant a tree, make a pond, create somewhere for pollinators or find a better way to deal with rain ... it turns an enormous abstract problem into something local and tangible.

Perhaps one of the most useful things we can teach children about the future isn't simply what might go wrong, it's that they can have some agency in shaping what happens next.

🌱 COMMUNITY - In Tain, a visitor attraction designed to grow opportunity

And finally, to Easter Ross, where a new £1.8 million Community Innovation Campus has officially opened in Tain.

Gro For You Community Innovation Campus is difficult to describe with one neat label.

There's a café and local larder, gardens and adventure play, geodesic domes, learning spaces, training in areas including food production, hospitality and green skills and an events venue intended to bring performances and gatherings into the area.

The clever bit is how those things connect. Income generated through the campus including events and hospitality is designed to feed back into apprenticeships, qualifications and opportunities for young people locally.

The organisation describes its model through three ideas ... people, place and planet.

More than 30 local residents have already helped develop the site, doing everything from planting trees and creating wetlands to upcycling and building planters.

The ambition behind it is particularly relevant to rural Scotland and rather than accepting that young people inevitably have to leave smaller communities to find opportunity, the project is asking whether we can build more of that opportunity where they already live. I think that's a fascinating model!

A community project doesn't necessarily have to sit waiting for funding, a business doesn't necessarily have to exist purely to extract profit and a visitor attraction doesn't necessarily have to benefit only its visitors ... sometimes the same place can do several jobs at once.

A little more harmony

A wildcat released into the Cairngorms or a child planting a tree beside their classroom or a new community campus opening its doors in the Highlands ... NONE of these things solves the bigger problem on its own and perhaps that's the point.

We sometimes talk about hope as though it's a feeling we have to summon up before we can act but maybe it works the other way around ... maybe hope is something we build in the habitats we restore, the skills we teach, the trees we plant, the opportunities we create and in the decisions we make now because we believe a different future is still possible.

That feels like a useful thought to carry into the week.

Until next Monday,

Karen xx