Discover Nature Award - Edinburgh

🌳 Discover Nature Award - Find your place

The Discover Nature Award is a free, two-day experience for 18–28-year-olds in Scotland, co-designed by our participants and run by Borders Forest Trust to help you reconnect with the land, with others, and with yourself.

Just like our DNA, the award has two strands, our Discover Day and Nature Day, held together by four bases: Knowledge, Community, Action, and Connection. These form the living code of the Discover Nature Award, guiding you from environmental challenges to nature-based solutions.

You don’t need experience, gear or prior knowledge, just curiosity and a willingness to get involved.

🌿 Strand One: Discover Day

📍 10am–4pm, Holyrood Park, Edinburgh

We begin in an accessible urban green space with good public transport links. This day is about exploring nature where you live and learning how to keep discovering and connecting with it.

You’ll uncover the challenges facing Scotland’s ecosystems through our Symbols of Nature:

🌲 Woodland – loss of ancient forest, fragmented habitats, lack of native tree cover.

💧 Rivers & Lochs – pollution, flooding, drought, barriers to wildlife.

🌾 Peatlands – drained and degraded, releasing carbon instead of storing it.

⛰ Uplands – overgrazing, muirburn, biodiversity loss, fragile soils.

🌼 Grasslands & Meadows – 97% lost to intensive farming, pressures on pollinators.

You’ll also:

· Build skills to recognise these landscapes and the pressures they face.

· Learn to use maps as tools for discovery and connection.

· Connect with local organisations taking climate action.

· Reflect on your relationship with nature using our Connection Reflection tool.

🌲 Strand Two: Nature Day

📍 8:30am–6pm, departing from Meadowbank, Edinburgh

We’ll travel together to one of Borders Forest Trust’s Wild Heart sites, places where native woodland, peatland and wild habitats are being brought back to life.

Here, you’ll see how nature can heal and how restoration work addresses the same challenges explored on Day 1:

🌲 Woodland expansion – restoring forests and connecting habitats.

💧 River restoration – bringing back natural flows and healthier waters.

🌾 Peatland rewetting – locking up carbon and supporting unique ecosystems.

⛰ Upland rewilding – reducing pressures, restoring balance and biodiversity.

🌼 Meadow regeneration – creating space for wildflowers and pollinators to return.

You’ll also:

· Learn how to stay safe and plan well in wild places.

· Understand responsible access through the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

· Deepen your connection to nature through a final Connection Reflection.

🔥 Why Take Part?

Scotland’s forests, peatlands and wild habitats are in crisis and yet young adults are too often left out of the work to protect and restore them. The Discover Nature Award gives you the space, skills and support to do something about it.

Created by Borders Forest Trust, who have been rewilding landscapes in Southern Scotland since 1996, this brand-new programme is your invitation to explore the climate and nature crises and get the skills and community to start tackling them head on where you are and across Scotland.

🎒 What’s Included:

• Free to attend no cost at any point during the experience

• Accessible locations, Day 1 is in an urban green space with good public transport options

• Free transport on Day 2, we’ll meet in a central location and provide transport to and from the wild site (please note: travel to the meeting point is not covered)

• All specialist outdoor gear and learning resources provided for both days, ensuring anyone can take part safely and comfortably

• Free kit items to keep helping you carry on discovering nature afterwards

• Led by friendly, experienced staff from Borders Forest Trust

🌱 What Happens Next:

Once you’ve completed the Discover Nature Award, you’ll be invited to:

• Receive your embroidered Discover Nature Award graduate patch

• Use your free kit to keep discovering and connecting with nature, wherever you are

• Take part in our free overnight Discover Nature Camp

• Help shape the future of the award by applying to our DNA steering group

You’ll also have the chance to support the wider work of Borders Forest Trust, restoring native woodlands, rewilding habitats, and creating space for nature to thrive across Southern Scotland.

Lend your voice to the cause. Help us grow a movement.

✨ Secure Your Place:

This is a brand-new programme and spaces are limited.

Sign up now to secure your place and start your journey.

We’ll be in touch with everything you need before the event.

📬Want to know more or get involved? If you're a partner organisation, supporter, or just curious about the Discover Nature Award or the work of Borders Forest Trust, we’d love to hear from you.

👉 Get in touch with our Discover Nature Award manager at sam.knight@bordersforesttrust.org or visit bordersforesttrust.org to learn more.

🎥 In the meantime, check out the video below to see the amazing rewilding work we're doing across Southern Scotland.