FORGET conserving the Great Barrier Reef or erecting flood defences in coastal America, the best eco holiday of your life could be found in Scotland, at a cost of as little as £120.
BBC Wildlife magazine has just voted a week in the Highlands with the charity Trees for Life as the seventh-best conservation experience on the planet. It claims that nature lovers will struggle to find a more enriching experience, pound for pound,
than a wilderness break in Scotland which puts something back.
Since its inception, Trees for Life has been integral to the regeneration of Scotland's Caledonian Pine Forest. Several millennia ago, the forest covered 1.5 million hectares, providing a complex and vibrant ecosystem supporting beaver, lynx and wild boar, as well as red squirrel, black grouse and capercaillie. Now, due to deforestation, over-grazing and general human mismanagement, 99 per cent of the forest has been lost.
In a bid to reclaim it, the charity offers volunteer parties of ten people over the age of 18 the chance to do their bit for the environment by planting native trees like Scots pine, rowan and hazel, and removing invasive aliens like sitka spruce and lodgepole pine.
Work party volunteers, who are provided with transport, meals and accommodation for a week, also collect seeds and survey data, and remove miles of redundant fences which can be hazardous to game birds. Those uncomfortable with trekking across miles of countryside can enrol for a week in the field base, growing seedlings for future plantation.
Aside from abundant fresh air and the opportunity to reconnect with nature, volunteers are given a day off midweek to explore the countryside and take part in leisure activities locally. The eco-holidaymakers live communally, sharing comfortable digs, cooking rotas and, inevitably, interesting stories. It's not unusual to hear tales of lifelong friendships being established.
"You are working with people from all over the world; people with very different lives," says Lorraine Corfield, a surgeon from London who has been attending work weeks twice a year since her first visit in 2001.
"I've had some of the best weeks of my life up there. For me, it is a combination of being part of a project with foresight and also being outdoors. I live in London and work inside, so working a week outdoors is great. There is also the group activity; doing and achieving things that you couldn't on your own."
As well as the sense of community and common aim, what is important for Lorraine and others is that her work is making a difference in such a vital area.
Trees for Life has planted more than 700,000 saplings in recent years and removed kilometres of redundant fencing. Their work with the RSPB on habitat restoration at Corrimony Nature Reserve has led to an increase in black grouse numbers.
The ultimate aim is to restore the forest across 600 interlinked square miles of the Highlands, from the far north to the Cairngorms.
"Recreating a 5,000-year-old forest ecosystem is extremely problematic," says Dan Puplett, Aspen Project coordinator with Trees for Life.
"There are certain insects and plants, for example, that have been lost that we probably don't even know about. What we can do is try to re-establish the forest, with as many of its constituent parts as possible, to give it a biological richness again."
An Environmental Forestry graduate, Dan has led 73 work weeks in his eight years with the organisation. This year, there are 50 weeks in the charity's diary.
"Without the volunteers on the work weeks, we couldn't achieve our aims," he says. "They are totally central to what we do. We get a really broad church of people. We've had all professions with the exception of astronauts – a broad age range as well."
To encourage volunteers, the charity operates a sliding scale of cost, suited to what individuals can afford.
Increasing environmental awareness has led to healthier participation numbers in recent times, coupled with peoples' desire to do something empowering on a limited budget.
"We've had people in their eighties coming," says Dan. "I think what motivates our visitors is the desire to make a difference to the planet and to meet like-minded folk. You are also in a great part of the world."
Bill Gray, from Troon, is in his seventies and did his first work week when he was 60. His love of Scotland and the outdoors drew him to the project and he has found it rewarding on many levels. "If you are ever in a rut, go and do something like this because you will soon find yourself out of it," he says.
The more you put in, the more you get back.
For more information on Trees for Life work weeks, tel: 01309 691444, 0845 6027386 , or visit
www.treesforlife.org.uk