Ambitious £2.3m woodland scheme unveiled on the flanks of Scotland's highest mountain

JAHAMA Highland Estates (JHE), the land management arm of ALVANCE British Aluminium in Lochaber, plans to quadruple native woodland cover across 32,500-hectares of land - an area slightly larger than Edinburgh - that it owns around Ben Nevis.

ALVANCE operates the last aluminium plant in UK – powered by a hydroelectric dam – which is located in Fort William and has been running since 1929. The business sits within GFG Alliance, Mr Gupta’s global metals and energy business conglomerate, which has been subject to UK-wide regulatory scrutiny in recent years, including in relation to its Scottish assets.

Read more: Hundreds of trees to be planted high on popular Highland Munro

The Scottish Government provided a guarantee valued at up to £586 million in 2016 that underpinned the financing used by GFG Alliance to acquire the Lochaber aluminium smelter and associated hydropower assets from Rio Tinto by securing long‑term power purchase obligations.

Now the tycoon’s associated JHE’s woodland plans have been backed by £2.3 million in public funds from the Forestry Grant Scheme. This is administered by the Scottish Government’s agency Scottish Forestry and will contribute to the project’s costs over the first five years.

In its first phase, the estate says it will expand “semi-natural woodland” from about 1,425 hectares to 5,700 hectares within a decade. A NatureScot report found that the woodlands on the estate that fall under the Ben Nevis Special Area of Conservation are in a “100 per cent unfavourable condition,” which JHE said it hopes to rectify.

The company said there are no plans to plant commercial forestry on the environmentally designated high mountain and moorland locations under the new native woodland project.

The approach will rely largely on natural regeneration around existing seed stands in the glens and lower corries of Ben Nevis, the Grey Corries and the Mamores, as well as moorland between Kinlochleven and Inverlair.

Deer and sheep numbers on higher ground will be reduced to ease browsing pressure, while farming continues on more productive lower slopes.

As part of this, JHE confirmed it decided to not renew “a limited number” of annual or seasonal farm tenancies. The company said it offered tenant farmers alternative, lower altitude ground instead.

JHE said two full-time posts are to be created under the new project to support deer management and monitoring.

The plans align with the Scottish Government’s target of creating 4,000 hectares of new native woodland each year and its ambition to be “nature positive” by 2030. Yet ministers have repeatedly missed annual planting goals since they were introduced, achieving them only once, in 2018. Forestry leaders have warned that bureaucracy surrounding grant schemes is deterring investment.

JHE said its plans go beyond trees, encompassing peatland restoration, removal of invasive species and measures to reduce rapid water run-off from the mountains

The smelter’s hydroelectric power station — the UK’s largest continuous scheme, generating up to 84MW — also has an upgraded grid connection. The company said this helps balance the national grid, keep homes and businesses supplied, and supports the wider use of renewable energy.

However, not all are convinced the benefits will reach local communities.

Andrew Baxter, a Scottish Liberal Democrat councillor, said residents had yet to see the wider gains promised after the taxpayer-backed purchase of the smelter and associated lands. Woodland restoration was welcome, he said, but did little to address the deeper economic damage left by deindustrialisation and the loss of jobs tied to the smelter.

Speaking to The Scotsman, Mr Baxter said: “We had really hoped we would see some community benefit in places like Kinlochleven, particularly considering the huge amount of taxpayers money that was used to help guarantee various loans for the smelter and the estate but we might as well say we have an absentee landowner again because we’re not seeing any real benefit.

“Woodland restoration, however welcome, doesn’t address the financial issues that the community where I live and represent face in the aftermath of de-industrialisation.”

GFG Alliance said it had made “significant contributions” to the Lochaber community, saying the Yahama estate staff headcount had at least increased by 50 per cent and is likely to be closer to double the number employed by previous owner. Since Gupta’s ownership, 40 new jobs were created at the smelter and more than 200 jobs were safeguarded.

JHE said it has not received any public funding to date, but had instead spent £250,000 on sponsorship and donations to support local charities and community projects while being an active partner in various multi-stakeholder environmental projects, including Spey Catchment Initiative, Nevis Nature Network and the British Dragonfly habitats improvement programme.

Ruaridh Macdonald, head of estates strategy and development at JHE, described the woodland scheme as a milestone in securing both the landscape and the region’s industrial future.

“Our Mamore and Killiechonate native woodland restoration programme will further enhance unique intrinsic links between our estate management, hydropower, and aluminium operations,” he said.

“It will pave the way for a larger range of related environmental improvements in the area as well as providing a range of benefits to local and regional businesses and all the communities who access and enjoy this magnificent landscape.”

Brendan Callaghan, interim chief executive at Scottish Forestry, said: "It’s great to see JAHAMA Highland and neighbouring estates taking such a proactive and positive approach to getting deer numbers down to sustainable levels, allowing these important habitats be restored on such a grand scale.

"This new native woodland will, over time, result in an important boost to nature across a landscape-scale area in the Highlands. It will also play an integral role in enhancing Scotland’s precious rainforests.”

He said the scale of the woodland project will make “a very significant” contribution to Scotland’s Climate Change Plan and native woodland targets over the coming decades.

Despite the scale of change, the estate insists the iconic mountain and moorland terrain will remain open to the hundreds of thousands of walkers, climbers, skiers and cyclists who visit each year. It is estimated some 150,000 people attempt to climb Ben Nevis annually.