The forests of the Cairngorms are the biggest and best connected in Britain, a quarter of the entire Scottish native woodland resource, more than half of the surviving Caledonian forest, and a refuge for disappearing wildlife like capercaillie and twinflower.
The National Park has nationally and internationally important wetlands and is the single most important mainland breeding site in Britain for farmland waders like lapwing and redshank.
The Cairngorm plateau is like nowhere else in the UK and is more like the arctic than Britain with species like dotterel, ptarmigan and snow bunting breeding there.
A quarter of the UK’s rare and endangered species survive here making it a stronghold for species that have all but disappeared from the rest of the UK.
It is this combination of big, well connected and high quality habitats that make this an outstanding place for wildlife.
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