“We need to rewild our mindset”

The word “rewilding” means many things to many people. As a conservationist and nature writer there are times when I find other people’s use of the word frustrating – but then it is a hard word for many people to define, and this can lead to it being misused and misunderstood.

In Britain, and no doubt in many countries across the world, the word is used in both positive and negative terms. It is used by some to unite and by others to divide, it is employed to engender enthusiasm but also to create fear, it is used by organizations to celebrate good decisions and to justify bad ones. The word “rewilding” is used to both label nature conservation efforts and to libel them.

There are, of course, definitions as to what the word should mean, strict parameters within which it must fit. I find it a bit ironic that a word that is all about natural processes being allowed free reign is also one whose exact meaning is tightly controlled by us humans… But however we want to define the word, rewilding is now part of the common vernacular. Its use has become widespread and with that increased usage has come many misunderstandings.

I think it is important we challenge these misunderstandings, so I have put together a new book with 13 other contributors, each of us taking on a different aspect of rewilding that we feel has either been misunderstood or has a general misconception about it. The 14 of us come from different backgrounds and have different experiences. No doubt if we all sat down together to come up with a single definition of rewilding, we would still be discussing it. To paraphrase, we are all singing from the same hymn sheet – it’s just that we’re singing slightly different words.

Rewilding is a global term, but one of the topics covered is very much a British one: the oft-heard misconception that Britain is too small and crowded an island for rewilding to be able to happen on a landscape scale. This myth is tackled head on by Professor Steve Carver, who by careful analysis shows that this is not the case.

Aside from this particularly British misunderstanding, the other topics are relevant wherever in the world you live. We look at involving local communities rather than acting unilaterally, we look at species reintroductions (twice!) and we look at balancing rewilding with other site objectives. I examine the subject of planting trees versus allowing the natural regeneration of woodland; it is a subject I have often commented on and is no doubt one that is relevant across the globe. We are often impatient when it comes to natural processes and tree planting is often a way we think we are speeding up the process of increasing woodland cover, but as I argue in my chapter, that method clearly ignores one of the most important natural processes of all: time. The book starts with Irish author Eoghan Daltun sharing his uplifting experience of rewilding an Irish Atlantic temperate rainforest and it ends with conservationist Mark Avery looking back from the future at what rewilding may or may not have achieved. But it is not all traditional rewilding topics.

In my mind, rewilding is about giving natural processes the space to develop, be that on the large scale involving whole landscapes or on the small scale in a garden or an urban setting. I personally feel we can rewild most spaces and for me, the most important of those spaces – the one that desperately needs to be rewilded – is the one inside our heads. We need to rewild our mindset. If we can build the principles of natural processes into our attitude towards land management and our own lives, then surely the world will be a better place.

With that in mind we have a chapter by Chris Richards, a farmer, on agriculture and rewilding as well as a chapter by the architect and professor Sián Moxon on why rewilding is right for both cities and the countryside; in it, she draws on her own experiences in London with the organization Rewild My Street. Now, I know that there will be some rewilding purists who will be shaking their heads at the mention of the words farming and urban, but I’ve taken it even further.

I have a CEO of a clothing business discussing whether the principles of rewilding can be incorporated into the running of a successful business and I also have a politician from the British House of Lords (the upper house of the UK parliament) arguing that rewilding principles should be built into our political systems – replete with metaphorical rampaging aurochs scattering politicians left, right and centre.

It is important that rewilding – and conservation in general – is something that everybody thinks about. We need to rewild our mindset, whether we are professional conservationists or business executives. We need to have a wilder attitude, whether we are farmers or politicians. In short, everybody has to think about natural processes.

Rewilding our world can be done, but it does need long-term commitment from governments. And to get that, it needs support from the wider general public, people who might not know much about wildlife and natural processes but who are often influenced by media outlets that can often misunderstand – and, therefore, misinform on – the subject.

I know this book with its broad brush of topics is not just about pure rewilding, but for rewilding to truly succeed we cannot allow it to become a niche subject. We have to broaden it out and start debates as well as correct the many myths and misunderstandings about what rewilding can not only mean, but achieve.

Rewilding mindsets and rewilding our attitude towards land management, food production, species protection and our own way of life is, in my opinion, the only way we can fully embrace the potential of what rewilding can mean for ourselves, our countries and the wildlife and habitats we share them with.

Great Misconceptions will be published in the UK at the end of September 2024. Enter the code REWILD10 at checkout to get 10 percent off when buying direct from the publisher.