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Highland soil environments represent ecologically dynamic habitats that may harbor metabolically versatile and pigment-producing microorganisms with potential biotechnological value. During the isolation of pigment-producing bacteria from Fol Yaylası (Trabzon, Türkiye), a pink-pigmented strain, designated FMA31T, was obtained and characterized using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Based on EzBioCloud analysis, strain FMA31T was assigned to the genus Pedobacter and showed the highest 16 S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Pedobacter humicola JCM 31,010T (99.12%), whereas similarities to all other species remained below the 98.65% threshold. Phylogenomic analyses, together with ANI (82.45%), AAI (88.93%), and dDDH (36%) values, clearly demonstrated that strain FMA31T is genomically distinct from its closest phylogenetic relative, Pedobacter humicola JCM 31,010 T. Strain FMA31T is Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped and forms stable pink-pigmented colonies. The major fatty acid is summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω7c and/or C16:1 ω6c), and the predominant respiratory quinone is MK-7. The draft genome (6.13 Mb; 39.22% G + C; 5,280 CDSs) revealed a metabolically versatile organism with diverse carbohydrate-active enzymes and distinct secondary metabolite biosynthetic features. The crude pigment-enriched methanolic extract exhibited a characteristic absorption maximum at 480 nm, consistent with carotenoid-type compounds, and genome analysis identified key genes predicted to be involved in carotenoid biosynthesis. Functional assays demonstrated antioxidant activity as determined by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assay (SC₅₀ = 2.03 mg dried crude pigment-enriched methanolic extract mL⁻¹;) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (5.32 µmol Trolox equivalents g⁻¹ dried crude pigment-enriched methanolic extract), as well as concentration-dependent inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (IC₅₀ = 986 µg dried crude pigment-enriched methanolic extract mL⁻¹) and butyrylcholinesterase (IC₅₀ = 779 µg dried crude pigment-enriched methanolic extract mL⁻¹), with a relatively stronger effect observed against the latter. Taken together, these findings support the proposal of Pedobacter folensis sp. nov. with FMA31T as the type strain. The results also highlight highland soils as promising sources of pigment-producing bacteria with potential antioxidant and cholinesterase inhibitory properties.