Loch Druidibeg Biosphere Reserve
The Loch Druidibeg Biosphere Reserve is located on South Uist, in the Outer Hebrides or Western Isles of Scotland. It has a range of habitats from coastal dune grassland (known as machair) to acid moorland and supports many notable plants and animals such as the corncrake and greylag geese.
What goes on there?
Traditional crofting still occurs at Loch Druidibeg. Crofting is a form of land tenure and food production found in the Scottish highlands and Islands of Scotland. Using seasonal stock grazing and fallow periods encourages a rich flora to live on the machair.Recreation activities that take places on the biosphere reserve include cycling, bird watching, fishing, shooting and walking.The biosphere reserve is used to educate children about the environment and also for scientific and conservation-orientated research.
What makes it unique?
The area is one of the most important breeding grounds in the British Isles for native greylag geese.
Where is it?
The current biosphere reserve is on South Uist, in the Outer Hebrides or Western Isles.
Factfile:
Location: Isle of South Uist, west off the Scottish coast
Ecosystems: Freshwater wetlands with a coastal/marine component
Terrain and habitats: Freshwater lochs; wetland; moorland; croftland; machair; sand dunes and beach;
Vegetation: There is a strong diversity of flowering plants, with over 200 species recorded on the reserve. Some of these species are nationally scarce. Small plantation and relict woodland scrub cover many islands in the loch. These are mainly Willows with Rowan, Birch, Juniper with woodland flora such as Bluebell, Primrose and Royal fern around their shores.
Size : 1,677 ha
Wildlife: The reserve hosts nationally important populations of breeding, including redshank, dunlin, lapwing and ringed plover. The machair is also home to the corncrake, a summer migrant once common in Britain and Ireland but now largely confined to the Hebrides. The Loch itself hosts a small population of native breeding greylag geese which, in the Uists, remain throughout the year.
History
Designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1976
Protection Classifications
National Nature Reserve (NNR)
Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
Special Protection Area (SPA)
Ramsar Site