For an introduction to the site and the tool please click on the tab at the top left or the link Home tab.
How to contribute to the RestorYation Cairngorms platform
You may have come across a story or prompt that you would like to respond to. Or you may want to contribute a story that is not related to any of the stories already on the platform. We would welcome contributions in a variety of formats, for example:
- Video
- Photograph
- Illustration
- Sound clips (spoken word, song, music and/or other sounds)
- Text
Please read the project's information sheet, and feel free to submit it by email using the contact details below [N.B. a form for this will be added at a later date, for the moment please copy and paste the info below into an email]. If you would like to send us a large file (over 20 Mb size) please let us know and we will send you a FileTransfer link where you can upload it.
Name:
Email:
Brief description of your story:
Geographical location [if your story refers to a specific location, please include a location reference, for example a grid reference, or the name of the location]:
Topic of your story [please select any of the following topics which are relevant to your contribution. We will use these to organise the stories in a way that enables visitors to the platform to encounter stories they are interested in and familiar with, as well as stories they are less familiar with].
| Group |
|
Topic |
| PEOPLE |
|
Age |
| Ethnicity |
| Gender |
| Sexual orientation |
| Ability/Disability |
| Socio-economic |
| Residency in the Cairngorms National Park area |
| Other topic related to 'people' |
| ECOLOGIES |
Species |
Endangered, extinct or otherwise 'lost' species |
| Refugee species |
| Controversial species |
| Less-visible, tangible or charismatic species |
| Sub-status species |
| Habitats, assemblages and ecotones |
Woodland and forest habitats |
| Montane woodlands and scrub ecotone |
| Subterranean assemblages |
| Processes |
Succession |
| Symbiosis |
| Migration for adaptation |
| Other topic related to 'Ecologies' |
| WAYS OF KNOWING |
|
Succession |
| Linguistic |
| Experiential |
| Artistic |
| Traditional |
| Scientific |
| Non-human |
| Legal |
| Historical |
| Spiritual and/or religious |
| Other topic related to 'Ways of knowing' |
If you know of a story made by somebody else, please feel free to invite them to contribute directly by sending them the link to the platform (click here to copy to the clipboard) , or contact us with your suggestion at restoryation@hutton.ac.uk
For an introduction to the site and the tool please click on the tab at the top left or the link Home tab.
Tips on exploring the videos
The RestorYation project has a set of stories in video form and will also include more material such as audio. The project aims to present the stories in a way that will enable an interesting narrative journey through linked videos. To this end the project team has reviewed the stories and characterised them using a typology or tags grouped in three headings: People, Ecologies and Ways of Knowing. For example, under People the tags include the following topics: age, ethnicity, gender, residency in CNP and several others. Videos where the topic has been assessed as referring to e.g. age will be considered to be linked in this way (i.e. via the People/Age attribute), and if one of the videos is selected for display then the linked video will also be presented to the user. This is the main mechanism of how the website filters which videos are displayed to the user.
When the page first loads it selects a video at random from the collection of video stories in the RestorYation database. If you are viewing the page on a PC or laptop then there will be video displayed on the right of your screen and a vertical stack of smaller videos (or actually carousels of several videos) on the left. If you are viewing the page on a smaller device then you will see a single large video (the randomly selected video) and three buttons beneath it that, on tapping, will open the groups of matching videos.
The website will use the tags from the randomly selected video to find matching videos under the three titles (People, Ecologies and Ways of Knowing) and add them to the three carousels of videos. The number of matching videos will be shown on the screen. At present the tool prioritises the display of videos by the number of characteristics in common between the selected video and those being added to the carousels. So, for example if a video has been randomly selected that has been assessed as telling a story that refers to age, ethnicity and residency in CNP then in the People carousel other videos which match all three matching tags will be presented first and those with fewer matches will appear later in the list.
You can choose a video by tapping on the "Choose a video" button. This will display an interactive window with the three groups of story characteristics for you to select your topics of interest. Please note the button at the top of this view which you can use to select matches to either ALL of your selection (i.e. an exact match to every characteristic) or disable it so that videos matching any of your selected characteristics are shown.
Within the group of three carousels with videos matching the criteria of your selected video you can select a video to watch next. This is how a narrative journey may be built - choose a video from one of the three carousels and then click on the "Make selection" button adjacent to it. This now becomes the active video in the main view player view and you can find matches to your new video by clicking on "Get matches". This will create a new set of content within the People, Ecologies and Ways of Knowing carousels. In this way you can explore and hopefully discover interesting and new connections.
The video in the main video player also provides a connection to the Maps view. If there are coordinates associated with the active video then when you click on the Maps tab the map will be centred on the location of the video.
You can also have the website show all the videos in the database for you to click through, just tap the button "Show all videos".
Please note that if you start a video and click the carousel to the next video then the previous video will continue to play.
Tips on using the map
The main map view Maps has several tools to help in exploring the project data. In the top right corner of the map there is a widget that you can click to change the basemap to an aerial imagery background or other map type.
The layers widget 
in the bottom right corner allows you to control what is displayed on the map, including historical maps provided by the National Library of Scotland, information from Nature Scot's Forgotten Woodlands project and protected areas provided by Nature Scot. The eye symbol shown in each of the layers in this widget lets you turn on and off the layer, the bar graph symbol on the OS layers lets you control the level of opacity so that you can e.g. view the aerial imagery through a partially transparent OS map. By clicking and dragging on the six-dots symbol on the left you can move the layers up and down the drawing order.
In the upper left corner there are buttons for zooming in and out of the map and for setting the map to display full-screen on your device. There are two search buttons. The first provides an interface to the Forgotten Woodlands data. On typing e.g. "willow" in this search box the widget will find place names in Scotland containing or related to "willow" in English and the Gaelic "seilich", click on one of the results in the list to have the map zoom to that location. The second search box is of a conventional type, not limited to woodlands.
In the lower left corner there is a button to show the legend (symbology) 
of the point layers that contain the woodland and gendered place names.
The locations of the videos (where available, not all the videos refer to specific locations) are shown as red dots on the map. You can click on the dots to view more information and to play the associated videos (there can be more than one video at a location). You can also use the popup to make the video displayed the selected or active video in the Videos tab so that you can find the videos which are related to it.
The locations of the Forgotten Woodlands place names are shown on the map as black dots and, as you zoom in further into the map, as dots with the place name text as a label. Only those places within 20 km of the Cairngorms National Park are displayed on the map (the Forgotten Woodlands project has mapped the whole of Scotland). Clicking on a dot will display further information about the name. It will also allow you to filter the names displayed on the map to include only those for similar woodland types (in English and in Gaelic). You can do this by clicking on the "Show similar names" button. To remove the filter click on a place name point and then tap the "Show all names" button.
The gendered place name layer includes numerous points which refer to an approximate location in the landscape rather than a precise accurately located place.
For an introduction to the site and the tool please click on the tab at the top left or the link Home tab.
What are the aims of this research project?
This project aims to identify and make visible perspectives and narratives about biodiversity that are currently missing or marginalised in biodiversity research and management in the Cairngorms. We are interested in stories that are not usually told or heard in the context of biodiversity management and research. These include stories related to:
- People and social or cultural groups (related to for example, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability)
- Ecologies (such as species, habitats, biophysical processes). For example, less visible or charismatic species such as underground microorganisms.
- Diverse ways of knowing, such as embodied, sensory and emotional as well as scientific, knowing through languages (e.g. minority languages), visual languages, as well as non-human or more-than-human ‘languages’.
Stories will mainly take the form of short videos, but can also be in the form of photos, audio, maps, and written accounts, or a combination. We will collect these stories, and include them on this platform to enable people to encounter stories similar and different to their own. We will also use this platform as a discussion tool in workshops and meetings.
Why are we interested in stories?
Narratives and stories are central in how we understand ourselves and our relationship to each other and our environment. They also play an important role in the framing and practices of biodiversity policy, research and management. Research shows that biodiversity enhancement and conservation will be more effective and inclusive if we take narratives seriously, especially in identifying and addressing how they work to marginalise particular people, ecologies and ways of knowing.
Who is funding the project?
RESAS (Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government).
How to contribute?
There are two important ways to contribute:
- Share your own story or perspective by following the instructions on the Contribute tab.
- Flag up stories, issues, places, perspectives, or groups that you feel are missing or marginalised. An easy way to do this will be on the platform. You can also encourage other people to contact us directly, if you think they might be interested in contributing their own story.
We are not just interested in people with specialised knowledge, but also knowledge that comes in wider range of forms including emotional, artistic, and experiential.
For sharing your own story or perspective, we invite you to either record a short video sharing your experience, or have us help you with the filming. If you would like us to help with the filming, get in touch, and we can arrange a place and a time. If you choose to record the video yourself, you can use your smartphone. Some tips:
- You may want to record your video in the context of specific places, practices, objects, species and/or issues that help you illustrate your expertise.
- Videos are often more engaging if those talking are in shot. We can provide selfie sticks to help.
- Please record your video in landscape (horizontally framed) if possible.
You are welcome to send us your video in a finalised form, or we can edit it for you. In this case we will show you the edited video for your approval before publishing on the platform. You can also send us a story in a different form, for example, a written text, audio recording or an image.
We will ask you to sign a written consent form to allow us to use your contribution as part of this project.
What will happen to the video I contribute?
If you send us unedited footage, we will edit the footage for you, and may add subtitles. You will have the opportunity to view a draft version of the video, give us feedback, and approve it before it is made publicly available.
The videos (or other form of contribution such as images or written text) will be embedded in this platform, and organised in such a way to enable people to encounter stories they are interested in and familiar with, as well as stories they are less familiar with. We will moderate the platform so that the public can contribute their own stories. We would like to keep the website live in perpetuity, to allow for continuous learning and discussion about biodiversity narratives. However, if you would like us to take down your contribution, you can email us at any time at restoryation@hutton.ac.uk.
We may also use the stories and the platform as a tool in discussion or decision-making settings such as workshops. With your consent, we may also use the stories in academic outputs such as conference presentations or academic journal publications.
The views expressed in the video (or other form of contribution such as images or written text) may also be used to identify key themes and narratives relevant for enabling more inclusive biodiversity research and management. These findings will be shared as a report to the funder, as an academic publication, and may also be included in publicly-facing publications. These may mention that one or more people from your sector or organisation participated in the research. Narratives quoted or points made will not be attributed to specific individuals. Nevertheless, it may be difficult to fully avoid attribution to a sector or organisation. Researchers will take note of any sensitive points made in the story that are not for quotation, and will offer to send draft report in order to give feedback on quotations being used in context.
Do I have to take part?
No, participation is voluntary, and you can withdraw from the study without giving reasons and without any negative consequences.
How can I withdraw from the study if I wish to?
You can ask us to withdraw your story from the platform at any time, by contacting us. You can also ask us to not include the views expressed in your story in our reporting and publications, up until March 2026, by contacting the Principal Investigator Katrina Brown. If you decide to withdraw, any data collected in relation to you will be removed from the data set and destroyed.
What are the benefits of taking part?
While there may be no immediate benefits for those people participating in the project, it is hoped that this research will lead to greater understanding and inclusion in relation to biodiversity research and management, including amongst land managers, policy and other decision makers.
Personal Risks
We do not anticipate any personal risks of taking part in this research. You may wish to discuss personal information in your video (or other form of contribution such as images or written text), for example, related to your gender identification, ethnicity or sexual orientation. However, the content of your video is entirely up to you, and you will have opportunities to edit your contribution before it is published, or withdraw it altogether from the platform at any time.
If addressing this type of personal information in your contribution, we may ask you if you would be happy to have the video organised under a certain category, for example, ‘ethnicity’, ‘gender’, or ‘sexual orientation’. This would help your story to be suggested to other people exploring the platform.
Ethical Review
The project has been reviewed by the Research Ethics Committee of the James Hutton Institute.
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the help of those who have contributed to this project as interviewees, as content creators and in other ways. In a future version of this website we will list the names of those who have given consent to us to do so.
Further Information
For further project details, please contact:
Katrina Brown
The James Hutton Institute
Aberdeen
AB15 8QH
Katrina Brown
Tel.: 07815732765
Alba Juarez Bourke
The James Hutton Institute
Aberdeen
AB15 8QH
Alba Juarez Bourke
Tel.: 07522110361
David Donnelly (software development)
The James Hutton Institute
Aberdeen
AB15 8QH
David Donnelly
Tel.: 03449285428
