The Scottish Rewilding Alliance has shown the Scottish government how the country could become the world’s first ‘rewilding nation’.

Dr Alasdair Allan, the minister for climate change, was told by the coalition of more than 20 organisations what the pathway towards nature recovery across 30% of its land and seas could look like.

This pathway includes restoring habitats including peatlands, native woodlands and wetlands, as well as maintaining productive farmland.

Karen Blackport, the alliance’s co-convenor and CEO of Bright Green Nature, says it offers the Scottish government “the opportunity to show global leadership”.

“This is about choice and opportunity. Declaring Scotland the world’s first Rewilding Nation would be a powerful statement of intent that we want to be a world leader in nature restoration.”

At the reception, held in Edinburgh on 3 December, Allan acknowledged that Scotland has yet to yet to tackle biodiversity loss at a sufficient scale, with one in nine species facing extinction across the country. Scotland is currently ranked in the bottom 25% of countries globally for the state of its nature.

“Addressing the nature crisis requires a whole government and a whole society approach – working together to achieve a nature positive Scotland by 2030,” says Allan.

Hollywood A-listers Brian Cox and Leonardo DiCaprio are two of the supporters of a charter calling for the government to commit to urgent action.