What’s in a word? Rewilding by any other name (wilding, restoration, habitat re-creation (looking at you Avalon Marshes)) is potentially less contentious or exciting, but it all amounts to the same thing: an increase in space for nature to let loose, to expand, to act and re-act in its own way to the soil, the air, the water, the climate, and the communities around and available to it.
Citizen Zoo brought together a jampacked Rewilding Futures 2025 Conference in Cambridge on Friday and Saturday. The array and variety, from 0.2ha sites, to massive landscape scale projects, all induced infectious excitement and hope.
Carolina Morgado (director Rewilding Chile) reinforced the necessity of bringing local communities and landowners on board, and working with them; along with the fundamental nature of public access infrastructure, demonstrated through the success of the Chilean Patagonia National Parks.
This was reinforced by Jacinto Mathe, with the Gorongoza National Park, Mozambique, having provided incredible successes for both humans and nature. Illustrating spectacularly the necessity and success of empowering people, and the impact that this can have on conservation efforts. “Education is the foundation of long term change”, but the importance of local traditions are also recognised, and this is all reflected in the ⅔ of the budget spent on community development alone.
Closer to home, the findings presented by Anna Gilchrist and Joe Glentworth in “The place for people in rewilding” demonstrated positive shifts in the relationship between humans and nature in relation to local rewilding projects in the UK (even if they are not called as such (again – looking at you Avalon Marshes!)). They found positive themes in over 50% of interviewees. Farms became less productive, but gained in other areas, and a greater blending of income sources led to the forming of new cultural developments.
Indeed blended income was cited as necessary on a project scale too. A variety of funding solutions were discussed and delved into. Dan Bass and Sophy Jones of CreditNature outlined a rewilding investment model, and project management software pioneered at Drumadoon (Isle of Arran); Ben Hart of Nattergal outlined the Public-Private finance model through the example of Boothby Wildland; and Craig Bennett of The Wildlife Trusts spoke passionately to the power of donations and philanthropy, and the requirement of blended finance and multiple income streams. Reminding us of the political power and statement of agency that donating can give communities by having a stake in the work of protecting nature and the landscapes they live within.
The session in “Artistic Storytelling as a Catalyst for Rewilding: Celebrating Success and Mobilising Action” delivered by Sas Kraftowitz, provided an excellent tool kit for engaging stakeholders and communities to inspire change for nature. A session that was over subscribed, possibly due to Alister Scott’s (Global Rewilding Alliance) call for powerful communication and the telling of beautiful, inspiring stories through engaging with the arts. He also highlighted the need to engage with innovations, such as drones, AI, robotics, DNA, and fixed point photography.
I was privileged to be invited to speak on the Ecosulis “Scaling Rewilding with AI” panel. A huge topic! Shepherded by our host Ella Milne, Hugh Sturrock of Loamin, Sophy Jones of CreditNature and myself took a brief jaunt through as much as we could cover in 25 minutes, touching on:
- AI as a tool to enable ecologists to increase the scope and scale of their work, spatially and temporally, in the light of increasing demand.
- Auditability, and comparability of data.
- Minimising observer interference and bias.
- The necessity for protocols and standards in both running and reporting AI outputs.
- Possibilities for community and volunteer engagement both in field, and remotely for those unable to access sites.
Possibly my favourite talk, Luigi Boitani tore up the “received wisdom” of the rote arguments rolled out to argue for reintroductions of predators. Advocating instead that the core reason to conserve species such as wolves being “because we love nature and want to” as being enough. This is where, and why, inspirational storytelling is so important. His engaging, informative and entertaining presentation was a real highlight that no one in the audience wanted to be over quite so quickly! Leaving big shoes for Hugh Webster (SCOTLAND: The Big Picture) to deftly step into. The wry “not yet” he added to his “Is Scotland ready for Lynx?” lead into a demonstration of the extremely delicate nature of policy, community engagement, legislation, and communication, and how one mistimed illegal release could seriously set back a wonderful and promising project.
The key points that inspired me as vital elements to facilitate a Rewilded Future were the absolute necessity of powerful storytelling (built on solid science and evidence) and community engagement. And those two are pretty interlinked!
There is much to do, so, in the words of Alister Scott – let’s “Beaver on!”
Cat Scutts January 2025
