Rewilding projects can help rural economies, says report
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RURAL economies could benefit from rewilding initiatives – protecting an environment and returning it to its natural state and bringing back wild animals that used to live there – while helping Britain meet its biodiversity and climate commitments, says a new report.
As the UK prepares to host the United Nations COP26 climate change summit in November, Rewilding Britain is calling on the UK and devolved Governments to back the creation of locally driven nature-based economies across 30 per cent of Britain by 2030. Putting nature at the heart of a green economic recovery would benefit rural and coastal communities, which are among the most deprived in Britain, while helping fix the nature and climate emergencies, says the charity.
Such a shift would include new jobs and businesses based on nature-friendly approaches and innovation, with farmers, fishermen and foresters would benefit from green investment.
“Localised nature-based economies could be transformative for reversing nature loss, tackling climate breakdown, and ensuring prosperous and revitalised communities across rural and coastal areas,” said Rebecca Wrigley, chief executive of Rewilding Britain.
The charity highlights other studies showing that expanding nature recovery and urban green infrastructure could create over 16,000 jobs in the 20 per cent of constituencies likely to face the most significant employment challenges post-Covid.
Nature-based tourism generates £1.4 billion a year and 39,000 full-time equivalent jobs in Scotland, with knock-on benefits for local food producers, farmers and service providers.
Rewilding Britain says nature-based economies should incorporate core rewilding areas across at least 5 per cent of Britain. These should restore as wide a range of natural processes, habitats and missing species as possible to form mosaics of native forest, peat bogs, heaths, species-rich grasslands, wetlands, and coastal areas, with little or no human impact or extraction of resources.
Another 25 per cent of the country should be regenerative areas – with a mix of land and marine uses and enterprises such as low-impact mixed forestry, nature-friendly farming and local food, nature-based tourism, low-impact fishing and hunting, locally grown sustainable timber, and conservation grazing.
The charity says governments, public bodies, businesses, farmers, local communities and others should come together to develop local visions for economic and nature restoration. Local land and marine plans, with local people at their heart, could be led by existing bodies such as local councils, National Park Authorities and community organisations.
Rewilding Britain thinks public and private finance needs to be refocused towards a shift to nature-based economies and points out until recently the UK Government was giving £10.5 billion a year in subsidies to fossil fuels.
The government’s plans to boost innovation, including through a £22 billion Innovation Strategy, should be used "to unleash a wave of innovation in nature-based businesses," says the charity.
