Restoring our lost flower meadows
Our vision for the Borders is a place where species-rich grasslands thrive along the River Tweed and across the wider landscape, where biodiversity is restored and where local people care for the land and work together to enrich our natural world.
Our mission
At Borders Meadows Trust, we aspire to landscape-scale restoration of our lost flower meadows.
Working with volunteers, local communities and landowners, we restore degraded pastures back to flourishing biodiverse habitats and create new flower-rich hay meadows where they have been lost altogether.
Our mission is to restore and create 1000 hectares of species-rich grasslands across the Scottish Borders – reversing catastrophic declines in the wildflower and pollinator populations needed for a resilient food chain – and to increase public understanding of the biodiversity, heritage and agricultural importance of these critical habitats.
Why meadows matter
In less than a century, the UK has lost almost 100% of its wildflower meadows due intensification of farming practices and changes in land use.
Today, species-rich grassland form less than 1% of the UK’s land area. The loss of this critical, biodiverse habitat from our landscape has contributed to a catastrophic decline in the numbers of pollinating insects in the last 50 years.
Critical habitat
In the midst of twin biodiversity and climate crises, meadows are a critical component of a healthy landscape, supporting hundreds of specialist plants, insect and fungi, and providing vital ecosystem services.
Ecosystem services
Healthy grassland soils store carbon and act as natural flood defences: ~90% of carbon is stored in the soil and plant roots. Converting grassland to arable land is estimated to cause a 59% decline in stored soil carbon.
Essential for pollinators
Wildflower and grass species found in meadows are critical for thousands of different species of insect: ragwort, for example, supports 178 different species of insect species and is the sole food plant for 27 of these species.
A resilient food chain
Approximately 75% of our food crops and nearly 90% of wild flowering
plants depend at least to some
extent on insects and other animal pollinators. Without them, our own food supply is in jeopardy.
A healthy ecosystem
The insect biomass of is an essential food source for birds, amphibians, bats and other mammals. Farmland birds species have decreased by an alarming 63% since 1970 and by 9% in the last 5 years alone.
Natural pest control
By supporting healthy populations
of farmland bird species such as swallows, martens and swifts, species-rich grasslands help to promote natural pest control in surrounding farmland.
"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed 10,000 years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."
Banner photograph © Apithanny Bourne 2025