European Rewilding for More than the Wealthy

Longhorn Cattle Grazing at Knepp Estate, West Sussex, 2017 (Photo Author's Own)

            Rewilding at its core is letting nature ‘get on with it.’ Much conservation & land management involves a huge amount of human meddling and intrusion and tends to maintain a ‘wilderness’ that is merely traditionally and aesthetically accepted. Nature has all of the necessary components in-built, but humans have altered these workings to the point that certain essential species have become extinct or extirpated (total removal of a species from an area) from countries that now have an impoverished wilderness. If we reintroduce some of these species we could spark a chain reaction that enriches wildlands. The most heavily cited success is the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1994. (Farquhar) The wolves keep deer numbers in check by hunting the slowest and weakest of the herd, and keep them on the move by making deer wary of wolf pack movements, allowing heavily browsed & foraged plants the chance to recover, grow, and spread, giving rise to all manner of habitats; trees grow and cool rivers in their shade giving fish safe havens (essential with impending climate rises); beavers and small mammals have clustered forests to shape and dwell in; all manner of insect and microbiological life are given diverse organic matter from spreading plant life to wolf-kill carcasses to feast upon and digest in the nutrient cycle.

As a concept in conservation it is quite radical and challenges many accepted rules and ideas, yet it is gaining considerable traction nowadays. However, I still feel that writings on rewilding snag on a core issue that never really gets addressed, especially by the pro-rewilding community; will rewilding effect the worst off in society?

             In Britain, things are looking up for rewilding despite not having the benefit of sharing land borders with countries that have other species, leaving hope for migration across those borders Beavers have been reintroduced into the Forest of Dean by the government, after years of scatty decision making about unofficial releases in Devon and Scotland. Lynx look set to be released into the Kielder forest, while wolves slowly spread across continental Europe, re-entering many of their previous homelands. Although human history has put pressures on wilderness everywhere, it thrives strongest outside of Europe; although with its share of endangerment. Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia all boast some level of healthy and free flowing wilderness. Caroline Fraser casts a broad eye over how rewilding has been interpreted and implemented across the globe in her text Rewilding the World.

            In Britain, rewilding has received calls of classism; Simon Fairlie called Knepp Estate in West Sussex a “rich man’s playground” as Charlie Burrell, its owner, inherited the estate from his wealthy, land-owning ancestors, replete with both a ruined and a livable castle. (Fairlie) Similarly, Paul Lister, an estate owner in Scotland, wants to release wolves into fenced off grounds, drawing the ire of The Ramblers, who support reintroductions, but feel that “if wolves justify fencing in land, they could become the guard dogs of the very rich, allowing estate owners to subvert the Right to Roam.”(Weymouth) Land Ownership in Britain is a particularly contentious issue, as we still have a dense and unequal distribution of ownership, causing particular problems in Scotland with vast shooting grounds and estates for often absent landowners. Despite this, Scotland supports a number of rewilding projects, including those run by the organisation “Trees For Life.” Any future security and success rewilding could have will be held back by continued criticism for opening exciting opportunities exclusively to wealthy and cultured urbanites. These are some core issues that I believe need unpacking for rewilding to blossom into a universally beneficial conservation movement for British, European, and global wildlife, and the humans that could live alongside it.

Woodlands Edge at Dundreggan Conservation Estate, Scottish Highlands, 2017 

(Photo Author's Own.)

Cost-Free Entry

            Most rewilding sites I’ve heard of are free to enter, as most parks are. I have personally visited Knepp Estate in West Sussex and Trees For Life’s site in the Highlands, Dundreggan Conservation Estate, and been charged nil for entry. To me, rewilding is immediately stunted if contained and trickle-fed to the public. This is commonly called a ‘Zoo.’ Wilderness needs to be able to spread; wolves protected in Europe have astounded all by spreading healthily across the continent, while wolves reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park have travelled some 500 miles. By eliminating a cost barrier at entry, rewilding sites dramatically increase their ability to spread word of their good work through first hand experiences. Unfortunately, most of these sites are remotely located, and so many would struggle to initially get there. If school trips or bus routes could be arranged, the public might get a taste and strive to return in future. Or, leading onto my next point, rewilding could be brought to the masses at home.

Urban Inclusion

            When we hear news about leopards skulking in the outskirts of Mumbai or wolves on their long trek through Europe encroaching on the suburbs of Berlin, we are immediately shocked that they should come near cities. We do not think that really, cities have come near them. Like all things artificial, geological, and organic, cities are just part of the landscape, and thus not exempt from natural encroachment. Obviously a rich-poor divide exists in the countryside, but it is much more pronounced in the urban environment where class segregation is much more obvious and condensed. Cities would thus be great sites for urban rewilding experiments, providing havens for the myriad hidden creatures that make homes and pathways of cities, while establishing exciting examples of rewilding in easy proximity of poorer families and individuals. Many city councils have already incorporated relaxed grass cutting in certain parks as a result of pressure from funding cuts.

Farming and Food Security

            This is a big one, and is getting pushed into the shadows in rewilding discourse. Pro-rewilders such as George Monbiot have made intense critiques of modern British farming, drawing attention to the economic failures of the market and the subsidy system. (Monbiot) I completely agree that farming needs drastic restructuring, but also feel that wiping out food production is extremely detrimental, putting the worst off at risk, as always. Nick Cohen wrote a piece in the Guardian in 2016 titled “I’m Sorry If Rewilding Hurts Farmers, But We Need It.” (Cohen) Personally I find this entirely unhelpful, especially seeing as the majority of rewilding projects occur in rural areas where a relationship with local farmers would be productive. Cohen suggests that it was the Neolithic invention of farming that sparked current wilderness depletion. (Cohen) Much more recently was the unfair seizure of land across Britain from peasants and landworkers, from lands in England that were turned into pompous hunting grounds and more recently clearances of smallholders in Wales and especially Scotland, where the wound is still very much raw. In a future where the rich can afford to eat, already struggling farmers have been forced off their land, and everyone wonders why the country is incapable of feeding its own populace healthily and properly, rewilded sites would be at risk of mirroring these ancient feudal estates reserved for upper class leisure and access. If rewilding could be worked into an ecologically minded farming system, we could have a future-proof landscape that might even heal many years of environmental degeneration.

Opportunities Outside of Tourism and Service

            I’d love to live in some goo-goo land where movements that ensure a biodiverse and green future go unhindered by the economy. Alas, the world is different. Rewilding occurs all the time by land just being forgotten about, but with land in high demand by a number of industries it is unlikely something long-term and substantial could happen without economic long-term planning. More often than not rewilding looks to the tourism sector for this security. Knepp Estate in West Sussex offers catered camping and ‘wildlife safari’ experiences, while companies offer tours or ‘safaris’ of rewilded sites throughout Europe. These are great ideas, and probably something I myself might pay for one day. My gripe with it is that many people would never have the money to get in touch with rewilding sites in such a way. Even should they secure a paid role involved in rewilding, it is likely to be in the service end, rather than the hands-on ecology side of things often filled with middle-class, highly-educated, white men. It is understandable that technical work be filled by those who have undertaken intense study of the subject, but there must be a way to get those who didn’t have the same educational opportunities to enter into this sector in a meaningful role and career. Keeping the masses in service to the lucky upper class in their leisure forays looks unfittingly mundane in contrast with the radical nature of rewilding.

Works Cited:

Cohen, Nick. “I’m Sorry if Rewilding Hurts Farmers, But We Need It.” The

Guardian (2016) <www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/03/rewilding-countryside-national-trust>

Fairlie, Simon. “Rewilding and Food Security.” The Land 14 (2013)

                  <thelandmagazine.org.uk/articles/rewilding-and-food-security>

Farquhar, Brodie. “Wolf Reintroduction Changes Ecosystem.” Yellowstone

                  National Park. <http://www.yellowstonepark.com/wolf-reintroduction-

                  changes-ecosystem/>       

Monbiot, George. Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life. (London:

                  Penguin, 2014)                   

Weymouth, Adam. “The Place Where Wolves Could Soon Return.” BBC Magazine

(2015) <bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33017511>