Very few of the public know what rewilding is. They might have a vague idea that it involves “getting back to nature” and view it as a “good thing”, and it is, but its adoption is not without problems.

The idea isn’t new. It was first coined by American environmentalist Dave Foreman in 1990 but has only recently come into prominence in the UK. There is no doubt that the environment is under huge pressure. The United Kingdom is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. We have lost around 50% of our original plant and animal species. Worse, species loss is accelerating, with 1 in 6 species facing extinction. The fear is that unless something is done, ecosystems in the British Isles could start to collapse, threatening food, water, and health security.

The uplands are among the worst affected areas in the UK. Vast swathes of our uplands are classed as biologically “degraded” due to:

• Centuries of sheep farming and intensive grazing.
• Burning of moorlands to encourage heather for grouse shooting.
• Extensive drainage of peat bogs.
• Commercial forestry replacing native species.
• Acid rain pollution.
  

As a result, they have been labelled biological (green) deserts.

A degraded landscape (or degraded land) is an area that has experienced a long-term decline or loss in its biological productivity, biodiversity, habitats for wildlife, ability to store carbon and regulate water supply.

Many of the dales in North Yorkshire are exactly that (see Picture 1). This is a prime example of a degraded landscape. Yet we have come to accept and enjoy this landscape of heather moorland, improved pastures separated by dry stone walls with stone barns dotted on the landscape. Walkers are probably quite grateful that the peat bogs have been drained. But here’s the thing. This landscape isn’t natural; it’s the product of centuries of intensive grazing.

This is where rewilding comes in. Rewilding is not about trying to reinstate specific communities of plants and animals (land restoration). It is about:

“The development of self-sustaining, self-organising and resilient ecosystems with minimal to no management in the long-term” — Pettorelli and Bullock

Put simply, giving the environment a helping hand to get back on its feet and then letting nature get on with it.

Rewilding in the UK is carried out by specialist charities like Rewilding Britain, the RSPB, wildlife trusts, large landowners (water companies and real estate companies) and, more recently, private companies like Restore and Nattergal. Up until now, tenant farmers, who make up a significant percentage of the farming population, have not been involved in the process.

Normally, it takes four forms:

1. Controlling or even stopping existing land uses (e.g. sheep grazing).
2. Removing man-made structures like fences/walls, weirs and river embankments to allow rivers to meander and flood.
3. Reintroducing key species; e.g. native plants, free-roaming cattle, ponies and wild pigs, beavers, and apex predators: wolves and lynx.
4. Monitoring changes over the long term.

In the uplands of the UK, a rewilded landscape looks completely different from Picture 1. Pasture, heather moorland and coniferous plantations are replaced with a mosaic of habitats: scrub, wild meadows, wild heath, and native woodland. Hardy rare-breed cattle, ponies, or pigs roam freely across the land, and natural predators like the lynx, golden eagles and even wolves are re-introduced to manage the herbivore population. Drainage ditches are blocked to allow peat bogs to retain water. Rivers are allowed to meander naturally and to flood the valley floors (away from settlements), all of which helps to mitigate flooding in populated areas downstream (see Picture 2).

The result: a major improvement in biodiversity.

• Native birds return. Surveys show a 250% increase in species
• Wildflowers, native grasses and hardy shrubs like bilberry and gorse all return.
• Populations of bees and butterflies double in variety and show a tenfold increase in numbers.
• Rewetting the peatlands leads to increases in insects, amphibians and wading birds.
• Bringing beavers back creates ponds along river courses and increases fish populations, amphibians and small mammals.

• The return of native woodlands encourages the return of birds of prey.

And there is more: returning the uplands to a more natural form brings additional benefits.

• Native woodland and peat bogs are carbon sinks. They help mitigate climate change.
• Healthy peat moorland traps and filters water and is an important source of supply to reservoirs for drinking water.
• Reintroducing native vegetation and allowing rivers to meander and flood the valley floors decreases downstream flood risk.
• Some argue that rewilding and reintroducing species like the beaver and the red squirrel can stimulate eco-tourism, woodland management and conservation management.

It should be. Rewilding is a valuable additional tool for returning the uplands to a more natural state and complementing existing conservation and restoration practices. It offers a low-cost approach requiring much less management while recreating natural habitats and raising biodiversity levels.

However, concerns are being raised by the local farming communities and other commentators who foresee a cultural conflict developing over how the land looks, what it’s used for, and who gets to decide how it will change. While the landowners and environmental organisations are the key decision makers, they may be ignoring the people that have worked the uplands for hundreds of years.

1. Wealthy landowners now see rewilding with its associated financial benefits (see footnote) as being more profitable than sheep farming and, as a result:

“Hundreds of tenant farmers have either faced eviction notices, had their short-term tenancies non-renewed, or been financially "paid off" to leave so that landowners can claim environmental subsidies” — Tenant Farmers Association

Overall, 56% of farmers in the uplands are tenant farmers. In some areas of the Yorkshire Dales, the Welsh hills, Northumberland, Cumbria and Scotland, where large estates dominate, that percentage is much higher and tenanting is the only option open to farmers.

2. The emergence onto the scene of environmental organisations, like Nattergal, Restore UK, and also wildlife trusts (regarding the purchase of the Rothbury Estate by a consortium of wildlife trusts in Northumberland) adds a separate set of tensions. The concern is that their agenda is being imposed top down, with little regard for the views and skills of the farmers whose families have farmed the hills for generations. Under the old system the large landowners left the tenant farmers to run the farms without too much interference. Now the worry is that there will be restrictions on how the farms operate.

There is also the suspicion that some proponents of rewilding are seeking to remove people altogether from upland areas. The hill farming population is already declining rapidly. Many fear that rewilding projects will speed up the process.

“(rewilding’s) unintended consequences, and the uncomfortable fact (is) that in some cases, it’s being used as a means of exclusion and displacement” — Carrie Starbuck

3. Sheep farming has been a way of life that has helped to create a distinct culture and a set of customs and traditions, which have defined the human landscape and supported the local economy at the same time. If the farming population declines, traditional culture will erode, and with it, possibly, the village communities will be lost. Villages like Kettlewell will become characterless Airbnb destinations.

4. Introducing apex predators comes with risks. Rewilding implies all animals are free to roam. Many country dwellers are genuinely concerned by the perceived damaging impact of top predators like wolves and genuinely frightened at the prospect of coming face to face with them.

5. Rightly or wrongly, many of us have come to like the uplands the way they are with the open moorlands, green pastures, dry stone walls and scattered stone barns and the picturesque villages nestling on the valley floors (see Picture 3). We may like the rewilded landscape (see Picture 2) much less, and while that may not concern the environmentalists, a decline in visitor numbers could have a damaging effect on the local economy. What if access to the moorlands becomes restricted as a result of rewilding schemes?

Note: The Yorkshire Dales alone attract around 6 million visitors annually, generating an estimated £485 million. (Source: Yorkshire Dales National Park)

There appears to be a divide between environmental goals and the survival of rural communities. Rewilding is an approach that should be supported but it needs to be introduced sensitively. We must decide whether we want upland populations to thrive alongside rewilding policy. If we do not want to exclude humans entirely from the uplands (seemingly some environmentalists might wish to do so) then we must find a way of merging rewilding practices with low-intensity regenerative farming. For that to happen, the farmers, who know the land best, must be involved in the process, not ignored.

There is a worry that nature is becoming a commodity that can be exploited by landowners to reduce tax liabilities, or to increase profits. There is a suspicion that participation in rewilding projects is less about ecological concerns and more about a convenient means of increasing income for individuals and shareholders at the expense of local communities.

Nattergal and RESTORE are private sector, for-profit businesses that treat nature recovery as a viable land-use and investable financial asset class. But this is also a concern. When nature is commodified, its intrinsic value is replaced by its financial value. If an ecosystem is managed primarily to generate a return on investment for investors, ecological decisions may shift toward whatever pays best rather than what the local environment needs.

1. Environmental Land Management Payment Rates

Note 1: The average size of a large estate in the uplands (such as the Scottish Highlands or the uplands of Northern England and Wales) typically ranges from 1,600 to 8,000 hectares.

Note 2: Upland estates typically range from around 1,600 ha to 8,000 ha. Traditionally farmed estates can expect an income of between £300,000 and £1.5 million depending on size. Transitioning to rewilding and gathering all the additional payments could potentially see incomes increase to between £1.05m and £6.5m

• Rewilding Britain website
• Rewilding’s Human Cost: Who Gets Left Behind When Nature Takes Over? Carrie Starbuck: The Nature of things: February 2025
• The historic Rothbury estate is going back to nature, but can it live in harmony with farmers The Observer July 2026
• Securing the Rothbury Estate: Wildlife Trusts The Wildlife Trusts
• The Wild Ingleborough Project