What is Rewilding in the UK?

We often hear the term rewilding banded about, but what does it actually mean? Well, it's a really large scale approach to restoring nature, ecosystems and biodiversity!

It's a big scale project, and they hope that by enabling natural processes, missing species and reducing some human activity, the nature and climate crises can be helped. In other terms, rewilding means hope for a better future for us, and the world around us.

Nature conservation usually puts all of its focus into one keystone species or habitat, rewilding stands out because it aims to restore life in nature. Across the UK, rewilding projects are taking place, and it's thanks to these that a lot of the natural processes we see today are still around.

Rewilding is amazing, and we wanted to share some more about it, so read on to find out about the wonderful work being done to restore degraded landscapes, reinstate natural processes and create resilient ecosystems in the UK.

The Aim of Rewilding Britain

Make up for Biodiversity Loss & Natural Processes

Rewilding works to repair damaged ecosystems, so that they are functional and can provide a home for natural wildlife. This is through restoring natural processes, and where appropriate, adding in species.

Connecting People With Nature

By enriching the world around us, rewilding is able to reconnect local communities with nature, creating wilder nature that we all have access too, all whilst natural processes work around them.

Tackling Climate Change

Rewilding plays a critical role in combating climate change by enhancing the natural processes that store carbon, improve ecosystem resilience, and mitigate the impacts of extreme weather.

What does Rewilding Involve?

• At the heart of rewilding is restoring natural ecological processes and letting nature take over; this is anything from the free movement of rivers to natural grazing. Nature restoration could be restoring wetlands by working on reintroducing wetland vegetation and Beavers.

• If a habitat has a native species that no longer resides there, rewilding may involve placing these appropriate missing species back into this habitat, this helps with restore the intricate web of a habitat.

• The main goal is to create a self sustaining ecosystem that can take care of itself.

Examples of Rewilding in the UK

The Knepp Estate

Arguably one the most famous rewilding projects, the Knepp Estate is one of the largest pieces of rewildered land, with incredible results. It started as agricultural land that was intensely farmed, but since 2001 it has been devoted to rewilding the landscape.

This project is incredible; they introduced free roaming populations of large herbivores that graze and this has driven the regeneration!

Results have come in the form of rare species breeding on this land - from Turtle Doves to Nightingales, this area offers support to the species who need it the most. (Common species thrive here too!)

The Knepp Estate is a key project that shows simple, low cost methods are often the most effective.

The Scottish Highlands - The Cairngorms Connect Project

Moving further up the UK, the Cairngorms project is a large initiative in the UK. It focuses on restoring the natural habitats of the Scottish Highlands.

Woodlands, peatlands and grasslands are all areas they are working to support. It's a huge project, and there are an abundance of projects going on all at one time.

Restoration of watercourses is happening through removing drainage modifications and promoting the natural process, they are also enhancing natural native woodlands by managing grazers and taking non native species away. Through thinning and species diversification, pine plantations will become a better habitat for wildlife.

The project is improving biodiversity, reducing carbon emissions by restoring peatlands, and enhancing the resilience of the landscape to climate change.

The (successful) reintroduction of Beavers

After being extinct in Britain for hundreds of years, Beavers have been successfully reintroduced across the UK, with the Cornwall Beaver Project being a notable one.

Known for their ability to create wetlands by building dams, beavers help restore biodiversity, reduce flooding, and increase carbon sequestration in waterlogged environments.

The reintroduction of Beavers has led to the restoration of wetland ecosystems, benefiting a variety of species, such as water voles, otters, and a variety of bird species. Their natural dam-building has also reduced flooding in some areas.

The Benefits of Rewilding

Across the UK, rewilding has had an untold number of benefits, and we are sure it will continue to do so as it is bought to more and more habitats.

One way it has helped is by increases native species populations, this creates a more balanced and sustainable ecosystem.

Restoring wetlands, forests and other landscapes enhances the process of capturing and storing carbon (reducing the greenhouse effect), this leads on to helping to mitigate climate change.

Beavers are a hero in the natural world. Along with other species, they play a key role in natural flood management, this mixed with restored wetlands, water levels are being regulated more efficiently.

Rewilding projects have created new opportunities for eco-tourism, bringing economic benefits to rural areas while promoting environmental education.