One in five county councils have embraced rewilding on public land in Great Britain, with a growing number setting aside former golf courses, post-industrial scrubland and recovering waterways for nature.
From Rhondda Cynon Taf to Brighton, 43 councils in England, Wales and Scotland have launched rewilding schemes or are planning to do so in rural and urban areas, a joint investigation by the Guardian and the wildlife magazine Inkcap Journal found.
Councils, among the largest landowners in the country, have not usually been viewed as part of the rewilding movement, which is dominated by high-profile examples such as the Knepp estate in West Sussex and large-scale projects in Scotland.
What is rewilding?
Rewilding is the restoration of nature in places altered by human activity. From releasing apex predators such as jaguars and wolves to making space for native grasslands in urban areas, rewilding can happen on a big or small scale.
While there are competing definitions, most have the rebuilding of sustainable ecological health at their core, be it the return of kelp forests on the Sussex coast in England or the reintroduction of mockingbirds on the Galápagos Islands.
Why has the term become so popular?
Rewilding has captured the public's imagination by being an environmental movement and a science-based process at the same time. With visions of a wilder planet, high-profile environmentalists such as David Attenborough and George Monbiot inspired millions with paths to a more biodiverse, ecologically healthy future. The success of rewilding pioneers around the world has shown what is possible: from the restoration of Gorongosa national park in Mozambique after the civil war to the Knepp estate in the south of England.
Does rewilding have universal support?
No. Critics of rewilding fear that the term is being used to justify the removal of humans from the landscape, especially farmers and indigenous communities. In the UK, some have dismissed the concept as a fad for 'toffs' and landowners with vast incomes, while others fear it is being used to attack agricultural communities who have farmed areas for hundreds of years.
Can you rewild?
While the boldest rewilding initiatives take place at a landscape scale, small changes can have a big impact. Millions of people changing how they mow their grass or let nature into their gardens, balconies and window sills can add up, providing more space for biodiversity to recover.
In the face of overwhelming public support for a wilder country, the Guardian and Inkcap Journal asked 206 county councils and single tier authorities in Great Britain for information on their municipal rewilding efforts. The findings show that many are adapting the concept to suit the local area, and launching new projects in consultation with the public.
Examples include North Somerset council, which has decided to rewild “as much land as possible” after it declared a nature emergency in 2019. It is focusing its efforts on parks, agricultural land, waterways and coastal areas to improve biodiversity by 2030.
In East Renfrewshire, a stretch of industrialised river channel on the Levern Water is being reconnected to its natural floodplain and two 18th century weirs are being modified to allow salmon to travel upstream for the first time since the Victorian period.
Last year, Derby announced the largest urban rewilding project in the UK, at Allestree Park, under which 130 hectares (320 acres) in the city – including parts of a former golf course – will be converted into a mosaic habitat of woodland, scrub and wildflower meadows, with the reintroduction of red kites and dormice.
Many councils have chosen to use alternative terms to “rewilding”, a word that has sometimes proved controversial. For example, Birmingham city council said the term was problematic and could be understood as the total restoration of ecosystems, meaning that wolves, lynx, bison and beavers would need to be reintroduced.
However, the authority said it had delivered a number of landscape-scale conservation projects, including the improvement of water quality and connectivity in the city’s rivers to support returning otter populations, which were recently detected near the Mailbox shopping centre.
All the councils approached in England, Wales and Scotland were asked the following questions: how were they defining rewilding; did they have any current or planned rewilding initiatives; and, if so, how much funding had been dedicated to the projects.
In response, 28 councils said they had embarked on rewilding projects and a further 15 said they planned to do so. The responses were dominated by councils in England and Scotland, with three local authorities in Wales launching or planning projects.
Alastair Driver, head of the NGO Rewilding Britain, said all councils could make a significant contribution to the group’s aim to rewild 5% of Great Britain. “There’s no doubt that local authorities can directly and indirectly contribute significantly to rewilding, particularly around urban fringes where people can walk out into truly wild or wilding countryside,” he said.
“We have got to find large sites of at least 250 acres where we can move significantly up the rewilding spectrum. That also usually means, in the absence of native herbivores like bison and elk, we are probably going to need small numbers of rare-breed cattle while allowing natural regeneration to take its course.”
Ben Goldsmith, an environment campaigner who is on the board of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said the figures for the councils’ plans showed rewilding was not the preserve of “toffs” and wealthy landowners, a recent criticism by the gardening writer and broadcaster Monty Don.
“The idea that rewilding is a niche interest for those that can afford it is nonsense,” Goldsmith said. “It is something that we need to pursue big and small in as many places as possible. In an urban context, that means creating some big areas where nature is allowed to function: pockets of wildness in our parks, on rooftops, along riverbanks. I think rewilding is a mass movement.”
The figures are based on self-identification. If a council endorsed rewilding or said they were undertaking rewilding activities, they were included as a yes. Councils that rejected the term, even if they were undertaking activities that could be considered rewilding, were included as a no. The exception to this was when “rewilding” actions clearly did not extend beyond reduced mowing of grassy areas.
While there have been several attempts to define rewilding, there is no uniform approach, although scientists are increasingly describing the term along a spectrum from total human modification to wilderness, with activities that make an area more natural described as rewilding.
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