Rewilding can bring jobs as well as wildlife
AFARM in Devon and a nature reserve in Somerset are among the rewilding projects studied in a research project to demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of turning land back to nature.
The study by charity Rewilding Britain claims to show that rewilding ‘marginal’ land boosts jobs and volunteering opportunities while helping nature and allowing food production to continue.
Upcott Grange Farm, Devon, belonging to farmer-turned-conservationist Derek Gow, and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust land at Steart Marshes on the Somerset coast were among 23 projects covering more than 75,000 acres of land being rewilded, which involves large-scale restoration of natural systems and, in some cases, reintroducing species.
Analysis from 22 of the sites reveals a 47 per cent increase in jobs, from 151 before projects began to 222 over an average of 10 years, with more varied roles covering areas such as nature tourism, monitoring and education.
Data from 19 sites showed an almost ninefold increase in volunteering, from 50 volunteers to 428, as a result of rewilding activities – a ‘volunteer engagement boom’ that Rewilding Britain’s director, Alastair Driver, said would bring physical and mental health benefits to people.
And all the sites continue to generate income from food production on more productive land, livestock, and other enterprises, the research shows.
Rewilding land to boost nature and help tackle climate change has proved controversial in some quarters, amid concerns it involves abandoning land that should be used for food production, and the study found mixed views on the projects from neighbouring landowners. But Rewilding Britain said its findings punctured myths that it was about land abandonment or halting food production.
And Professor Driver, who gathered and analysed the data, said: “Our findings on green jobs should be music to the Government’s ears.
“They spotlight rewilding’s potential for creating economic and other opportunities for people – while restoring nature and tackling climate breakdown.
“Many of us knew that real-world rewilding projects produce food and create new job and volunteering opportunities alongside offering major biodiversity, flood risk, water quality, health and carbon sequestration benefits – but even we underestimated the extent to which they do so.”
At one of the sites in the study, Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk, where rewilding marginal land is taking place alongside regenerative farming, project manager Dominic Buscall said it had helped unlock better income streams.
“Marginal farmland typically needs more chemical inputs and also generates less yield. Prior to rewilding, we were causing environmental damage to produce a poor farm yield,” he said.
“Now we are simultaneously delivering public goods and generating healthy profits for our business from this land, while still producing pasture-fed meat from it, as well as farming our adjacent, good-quality land with environmentally-friendly techniques.”
A variety of farms, estates and land managed by private landowners studied in the project cover 122,547 acres.