Rewilding: what is it and can your visitor attraction get involved?
Did you know there’s rainforest in the UK? It’s coastal temperate rainforest, which is rarer but just as important as the jungle-style rainforest you’re probably picturing. The problem is, there used to be a lot more of it. This is something rewilding can help with.
What is rewilding?
Rewilding, sometimes called landscape restoration, is a form of conservation that encourages us to let places return to their natural, self-sustaining state. It’s not as easy as simply letting nature take over. In many cases, we help by, for example, reducing active management of wildlife populations; removing manmade structures such as dykes; or reintroducing key native species that have disappeared because of human interference.
The aim is to create wilder, more biodiverse places, and the benefits are many.
- Connecting with nature is known to have a positive impact on our physical and mental health.
- Naturally strong and functioning ecosystems are more resilient to the effects of climate change. They’re easier to manage and safer to live in too, as they’re better at providing clean air and water, preventing flooding and storing carbon.
- There are economic opportunities Rewilding can help nature tourism flourish, inspiring and boosting local communities and economies.
- In the long term, rewilded landscapes are more self-sustaining, so they’re cheaper to run, too.
Let’s go back to the UK’s rainforest. It used to stretch all along Scotland’s western coast, but now only around 30,000 hectares remain. It’s threatened by a number of issues, including invasive rhododendron species, overgrazing by deer, extensive conifer plantations and nitrogen pollution. Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest is working to manage, expand and link up the remaining rainforest sites. If they’re successful, we’ll all reap the benefits, whether we live locally or not: the rainforest shelters livestock; it brings jobs to the local economy; local communities use it for exercise, education and meetings. It’s a tourism destination, and, maybe most importantly, it can be a “nature-based solution” to the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis.
Perhaps the most thought-provoking aspect as far as visitor attractions are concerned is that the more rainforest there is, the more opportunities there are for wildlife and nature-based tourism businesses. And that applies to rewilding in general. In fact, entire tourist attractions are being built around rewilding and rewilded places. A few examples include:
- Knepp, West Sussex: a 3,500-acre estate with camping, glamping and nature safaris.
- The Urban Nature Project at the Natural History Museum, London: not strictly rewilding but a great example of how even urban attractions can help promote greater biodiversity.
- Godney Marshes, Somerset: 20 acres of land on the Somerset Levels.
- John Muir Trust, various locations across the UK: a community-focused conservation charity with landscape restoration at its heart. It looks after places including Ben Nevis in Scotland and Glenridding Common in the Lake District, England.
What’s particularly interesting is that visitor attractions don’t have to have vast swathes of land to support the rewilding movement. You don’t even need to be in the countryside. Rewilding projects can vary enormously in scope and timescale, from large areas rewilded over decades to smaller scale, local projects that take up a corner of a garden – even in urban environments.
Basically, you don’t need to reintroduce wolves to make a difference – and grab your target market’s attention!
7 ways your visitor attraction can help rewild the UK – whether you’ve got a vast estate or a windowbox to work with
- Take part in John Muir Trust’s Wild Action Week (11-17 October).
- Become a corporate partner of Rewilding Britain.
- Rewild all or part of your attraction’s garden. It doesn’t have to be a huge effort or expense. Create a pond (this is undoubtedly the best thing you can do to create a wildlife-rich habitat – just leave out the fish as they scare off (or eat) other wildlife that might otherwise use the pond). Let some of your lawn turn into wildflower meadow; we’ve lost 97% of Britain’s wildflower meadows since the 1930s. Reduce or eliminate the use of chemicals. Simply stop mowing the whole lawn. Cut holes in fences so wildlife can move around. Chose plants that will keep pollinators such as bees and butterflies happy.
- Install homes for birds and bats. You could even set up a bid box camera to broadcast via your website, or provide content for your social media channels.
- Rethink how you take care of VA’s soil. Have you heard of the Wood Wide Web? It’s an underground network of fungi, roots and bacteria that connects plants to one another to provide them with nutrients and share resources. It’s vital to their survival, and to ours. Soil is a fine balance of organisms that’s disturbed whenever you plough or dig over fields and borders. Fortunately, there’s a simple solution. Stop digging, use an organic mulch and let the worms do the work! The soil – and your green space – will be healthier as a result.
- Nurture and expand native and ancient orchards and woodland. Native trees are the best for our wildlife as they evolved together. You could also team up with neighbours to create an even bigger ecological network.
- Talk about what you’re doing. If you’re worried about how the rewilding process might look to guests, educate them about what you’re doing. In fact, you should do this whether you’re worried or not. Simply putting up signs such as “This isn’t an abandoned pile of leaves, it’s a home for a hedgehog” can make a big difference in visitor perception. Talking to your visitors about what you’re doing could be the most important thing you do. Rewilding effectively is as much about spreading the word.
If you’re considering rewilding a larger area, or just want to find out more about rewilding, these resources can help.
