An appeal to raise funds for a long-lost Cornwall rainforest habitat to be restored to benefit wildlife has been launched.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust has launched an appeal with a target of £50,000 to restore the habitat at West Muchlarnick Farm near Fowey to benefit the lives of wildlife.

If the funds are raised it will be the beginning of a 50-year restoration project.

Temperate rainforests used to thrive across Cornwall for many years. However, only small, fragmented patches are left as these ecosystems have been destroyed over time.

Falmouth Packet: The land at West Muchlarnick, The land at West Muchlarnick, (Image: Ben Porter)

Callum Deveney, director of nature recovery at Cornwall Wildlife Trust said: “Cornwall is home to some of the last remaining areas of temperate rainforest in the UK.

“These unique habitats are magnificent, and when you are walking through it’s hard not to feel like you have been transported to another mystical world.

“The majority of these rainforests in Britain were destroyed to make space for farming, transport, and development, but we now have an exciting chance to restore this important habitat to a site in Cornwall.”

Callum added that in 2022, Cornwall Wildlife Trust was gifted 150 acres of land at West Muchlarnick, which includes pockets of rainforest already, making it the ideal place to begin the restoration project.

Falmouth Packet: The restoration project will benefit wildlife The restoration project will benefit wildlife (Image: Margaret Holland)

“Our plan is to plant more native trees to connect these pockets, allowing for the natural regeneration of this lost ecosystem and increasing the cover of temperate rainforest from approximately 8.4% of the site to an estimated 87.2%, said Callum.

“As temperate rainforests have a huge potential to store carbon in the trees and their spectacular epiphytes (lichens and mosses that cover the trees) the project’s success is essential for winning our fight against climate change.

“This is the start of an incredible, long-term project to restore thriving temperate rainforest to Cornwall and secure the future of its wildlife. We urgently need your support to help make it possible.”

To find out more visit www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/temperaterainforestappeal