Bill Ritchie awarded the MBE

Press Release 17th January 2007

We’re delighted to report that Bill Ritchie, vice-chairman and treasurer of the Assynt Foundation and Trees for Life Board member, has been awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the New Year’s Honours List.

Bill Ritchie on the land he has helped to secure at Assynt.

Bill is a crofter based at Achmelvich in Sutherland, and has received the MBE for his services to the Environment and Sustainable Development. He has been involved in two significant community buy-outs of large areas of land in the Assynt area of Sutherland. He was secretary of the Assynt Crofters Trust during its historic buy-out of 21,000 acres of the North Assynt Estate in 1993. More recently, as vice-chairman and treasurer of the Assynt Foundation he played a major role in the group’s purchase of the 44,000-acre Drumrunie and Glencanisp estates in 2005.

Bill is a law graduate from Oxford University, and he served on the Crofters Commission for seven years in the 1990s, and was also on the board of Scottish Natural Heritage from 1991 to 1997. He is a former Chairman of the Taiga Rescue Network, a network of nearly 200 NGO’s from North America, Europe, Scandinavia and Russia working for the protection of Boreal Forests, and runs his own consultancy service, World Forests, doing research on international forest issues for organisations such as CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research).

Bill has been a member of the Trees for Life Board of Directors since 1999, and has played an important role in helping to guide the strategic direction and development of the charity. His experience has been particularly helpful in our move to purchase the Dundreggan Estate, and his sometimes radical views offer a valuable perspective which helps to keep us on track with our vision and goals. We’re very grateful for all the insight, care and passion that he contributes to Trees for Life, and we extend our heartfelt congratulations to Bill on this wonderful accolade, which is an affirmation of all the excellent work he does.

Bill himself commented that:
“I can only think I have been awarded this honour because I have played a significant part in land reform development. I guess someone out there thinks I deserve it, but it is a severe dent in my reputation as a revolutionary!”

 

 

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Published: 17 January 2007
Last updated: 25 August 2010