What are some of the key ecological challenges facing Britain’s natural habitats today and how does rewilding provide a solution to these challenges?

The key ecological challenge we face in Britain is simply an absence of nature. We are one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries, ranked 189 out of 218 for biological intactness, with 56% of UK species in decline and 15% threatened with extinction.

Rewilding is a hugely effective mechanism for tackling that challenge. It is the restoration of ecosystems to the point where nature can take care of itself.
As well as restoring the abundance and diversity of Britain’s wildlife, crucially, it brings multiple additional benefits. It removes carbon from the atmosphere, allows species to adapt to climate heating, creates opportunities to diversify rural economies and provides people with clean water, flood defences, breathable air, cleaner soil and health and well-being.

Can you give me a brief overview of Rewilding Britain’s mission and aims?

Our Mission is to champion rewilding in Britain, acting as a catalyst for debate and action and demonstrating the power of working with nature to tackle the climate emergency and the extinction crisis. We want to see rewilding flourishing across Britain, reconnecting us with the natural world and sustaining communities.

How does Rewilding Britain work with landowners, communities, and stakeholders to promote rewilding efforts? What does collaboration look like in practice?

Rewilding Britain supports and inspires a network of rewilding projects across Britain through the Rewilding Network. With diverse members ranging from landowners and farmers to businesses, NGOs and communities, the Network is a powerful tool in catalysing rewilding. Through a combination of site visits, practical guidance, funding and networking opportunities, the Network encourages and guides people on their rewilding journey, helping them upscale and connect with each other. We work with a range of experts, organisations and practitioners to commission and share research and evidence. Our research and reports inspire policymakers and legislators while the support and advice we provide at rewilding sites enables nature recovery projects to get off the ground. We also advocate policies and legislation to ensure that rewilding has the political, financial and practical backing it needs.

Have you encountered many challenges and how have you worked to overcome them?

The momentum of the rewilding movement has built significantly over the past ten years, and moved from being a niche idea to playing a key role in helping tackle some of the biggest global challenges we face. However the scale of the problems we are seeking to solve are vast, and revealing themselves to be more so even than we could have known when we started out.

We are increasingly discovering that the protections that currently exist are not delivering for nature in the way that we need to. Highly damaging practices like dredging, mining and bottom-trawling are still permitted in the vast majority of marine-protected areas, meaning they are well off-track from achieving conservation targets. Even our national parks, areas that should be nature jewels in the crown of England, are failing on biodiversity, with just 6% of national park land in England and Wales currently effectively managed for nature. We work to overcome this by employing our five rewilding principles:

Support people and nature together – Rewilding can enrich lives and help us to reconnect with wild nature while providing a sustainable future for local and wider communities.

Let nature lead – From the free movement of rivers to natural grazing, habitat succession and predation, rewilding seeks to reinstate natural processes, including reintroducing missing species where appropriate.

Create resilient local economies – Rewilding creates opportunities for resilient new nature-based economies. It’s about finding opportunities for livelihoods that thrive alongside and enrich nature while providing a sustainable future for local and wider communities.

Work at nature’s scale – Rewilding is restoring ecosystems with enough space to allow nature to drive the changes and shape the living systems on which we all depend. Scale may come from single landholdings or through joining up nature so it can thrive from mountain top to doorstep, from source to sea.

Secure benefits for the long-term – Rewilding leaves a positive legacy for future generations. Securing the continued, long-term benefits of rewilding areas is key to a healthy, prosperous future for nature and people.

What are some of the most successful outcomes you’ve seen from rewilding projects, both in terms of biodiversity recovery and community engagement?

There have been many exciting successes over the years, illustrating the powerful solution that rewilding presents to some of our most urgent challenges. For example the Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST), an inspirational and world renowned community-led organisation, and Rewilding Network member is not only a great example of the power of communities to be spectacular stewards of the nature they live alongside, but has also seen incredible results for the diverse marine ecosystems the project works to protect and restore. Studies have shown that marine life has returned at dramatic levels in these rewilded waters, with some species increasing by nearly 400% since protection measures have been brought in. Pronounced biodiversity recovery has been witnessed in commercially important species such as lobsters and scallops, and the seabed is recovering with the growth of structurally complex “nursery” habitats and key “blue carbon” habitats showing particular recovery, which further supports the recovery of commercially important fish species.

Are there any specific projects that you are excited about right now at Rewilding Britain?

In January this year we awarded funds to 11 new projects which are pushing the boundaries on rewilding in pioneering ways across Britain – awarding a total of £150K through the Rewilding Innovation Fund.

The projects span everything from transforming education through outdoor classrooms that connect children with nature, to engaging young people around the ecological impact of nature restoration and species reintroductions, to researching the feasibility and impact of establishing a population of storks in London, to exploring the reintroduction to our shores of Britain’s largest ever bird: the Dalmatian pelican.

Full details of the eleven projects can be found here.

The construction industry has historically had a significant environmental impact and the rate in which buildings are being constructed is growing exponentially, especially in urban areas. How can rewilding initiatives be implemented in cities? Are there any successful examples you’ve seen so far?

Absolutely – the Allestree Park project in Derbyshire is a great example of an exciting urban rewilding project. The site is a former municipal golf course, combined with an existing local nature reserve and mixed woodland. It’s the largest open space in Derby, a city with a population of 250,000 people. The project is managed with the local community, led by a collaboration between Derby City Council, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, the University of Derby and Friends of Allestree Park. It is, at its very core, a community rewilding project, as well as the largest urban rewilding site in England.

Can these efforts play a role in connecting rural and urban ecosystems? If so, how?

Absolutely. Allestree Park is helping connect existing pockets of nature around the city and surrounding areas through its mosaic of habitats, and is helping the city meet its climate commitments too. It also provides everyday access to nature for local residents, which many studies have found improves mental and physical wellbeing.

Changing mindsets around sustainability and climate change often requires a shift in how we approach business decisions. At Virtus, we now commit a portion of our project profits to support Rewilding Britain. How important is support, such as donations and partnerships, in advancing your mission?

Our corporate partnerships play a key role in our ability to realise our vision, and achieve our mission. They provide much needed funding for on-the-ground rewilding projects that restore ecosystems – replanting native flora, re-wiggling rivers and reintroducing species that have been long missing from the landscape, such as bison, beaver and boar, all of which perform vital ecosystem services.

As well as enabling us to conduct research that informs best practice; lobby parliament to influence lawmaking so that rewilding and the species that can help kickstart it on can be restored and protected for the long-term; advocate and educate to normalise the concept of rewilding across the three nations and build evidence and tools that empower the stewards of land and seas to make decisions for nature. They are also vital allies, amplifying the messaging around rewilding across new audiences.

We’re also encouraging our clients to match our donations, where we hope this fosters a sense of collective responsibility and inspires further engagement in sustainability efforts. How can changing mindsets be a catalyst for long-term environmental change?

Mindset is certainly part of it. The climate and biodiversity crises are collective problems that will require collective solutions, and the impact of a failure to act will also be felt collectively. Voices from across government, finance and consultancy are aligned on the fact that nature degradation presents a huge financial risk in Britain. The Green Finance Institute and Oxford University found that the potential loss to UK GDP as a result of nature degradation is 12%. In November 2024 the Chancellor of the Exchequer stressed the need “to consider the materiality of nature-related financial risks” in an open letter to the Bank of England, and the world’s leading consultancies including McKinsey, Ernst and Young, Deloitte, KPMG and Boston Consulting Group all released publications in which they emphasised that failure to respond to nature and biodiversity loss presented a significant business risk.

With that in mind it’s becoming increasingly evident that investing in the restoration of nature is not only a mechanism by which businesses can give back to the communities and landscapes they operate among, but also a mechanism by which they can protect the economy of which they are themselves a part.

As we move forward, what changes would you like to see from the construction and development sectors when it comes to supporting rewilding efforts and reducing its environmental footprint?

We would love to see industries across the private sector build high integrity investment into their forward looking strategies. Everyone from Defra, to the European Environment Agency, to the Taskforce for Nature Related Financial Disclosures have identified nature restoration as a mechanism capable of tackling the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate breakdown. Evidence shows that effective rewilding improves the quality of soil, water and air, reduces forest fires and mitigates coastal and inland flooding. All while enabling local communities to set up nature based economies, and providing increased opportunities for people to enjoy and connect with nature. So we would love to see more investment in nature restoration, particularly community led nature restoration.

Finally, as we reflect on Earth Day, which is coming up next month, what message would you like to share with businesses and individuals about the importance of supporting environmental causes like rewilding?

We have reached the point where the breakdown of our climate and the biodiversity crisis are urgent threats to both nature and human society. But in rewilding lies a powerful solution. Rewilding can boost biodiversity, create carbon sinks, reduce the impacts of climate breakdown such as flooding, and improve water quality. All while offering fresh opportunities for communities and local economies, and for people to connect with nature and wild places. Facilitating the large-scale restoration of nature to the point that it can take care of itself gives nature — including people — a fighting chance.

Rewilding is more than just planting trees or bringing back lost species—it’s about restoring the systems that sustain life, community, and climate resilience. As Rewilding Britain reminds us, the solutions to our most pressing ecological crises already exist in nature itself. But unlocking them requires bold action, creative partnerships, and a willingness to rethink how we build, live, and do business.

At Virtus Contracts, we’re proud to play a small part in this movement by supporting Rewilding Britain and encouraging our clients to do the same. This Earth Day, we invite you to consider how your business—or personal choices—can contribute to the restoration of our wild spaces. Because when nature thrives, we all do.