Learning Day: Principles of Rewilding

Over recent years, the rewilding movement in Scotland has gathered real momentum. There are now hundreds of projects all over Scotland putting rewilding principles into action. They include large estates, farms, crofts, community landholdings and even parks and cemeteries.

But what does rewilding actually mean? To us it means the mass recovery of the living systems on which we all depend. Rewilding means restoring and protecting vast areas of land and water – where nature is free to direct the ebb and flow of life. Rewilding means giving space back to wildlife and allowing natural processes to shape whole ecosystems so that they work in all their colourful complexity.

Rewilding is also about the way we think. It’s about understanding that we are one species among many, bound together in an intricate web of life that ties us to the atmosphere, the weather, the tide, the soils, the freshwater, the oceans, and all living creatures on the planet.

Scotland is ranked as one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and although the power of nature to heal itself is extraordinary - it is not unlimited. Rewilding provides a practical pathway to address the climate and nature emergencies, and to renew our fractured relationship with the natural world. It is a pathway of hope.

• The ecological concepts that underpin rewilding
• The history of the word rewilding
• Our nine principles of rewilding
• Why rewilding matters to people
• Barriers to rewilding

• you are a student, graduate or interested in pursuing a career within the rewilding/nature restoration sector.
• you are a landowner or land manager interested in learning the rewilding basics.