Rewilding and nature recovery

Nature in the UK is in trouble. Wildlife continues to decline and many ecosystems no longer function as they once did. We need to go beyond protecting the fragments of wildlife that remain and restore nature everywhere.  
 

This is where rewilding can play a powerful role. 

Rewilding helps nature recover by restoring the relationships, species and processes that allow ecosystems to thrive. It works alongside traditional conservation approaches and helps create wilder places where wildlife and people can flourish.

On this page

What is rewilding?
Why a new approach is needed
Keystone species
Landscape recovery projects
Rewilding seas and coasts
Looking to the future

What is rewilding? 

Rewilding focuses on restoring the web of life that allows ecosystems to function naturally. 

There are three key elements of healthy ecosystems: 

• Connected landscapes that allow wildlife to move
• Complex food webs, including important or “keystone” species
• Natural processes, such as flooding, grazing, predation and disturbance 

When these elements are present, ecosystems become more self-sustaining, resilient and diverse. 

Rewilding builds on this understanding by restoring the ecological relationships that drive abundance and diversity. 

Why a new approach is needed

The bedrock of our nature conservation system is sites protected through legislation (like Sites of Special Scientific Interest), or as nature reserves.  

However, that approach was created when widespread nature still existed. Today that nature has gone.  

A major Government review – called the Lawton review – set out the issue: our protected areas are too small, too few, too poorly managed for nature and not connected well enough.  

The Wildlife Trusts have helped pioneer landscape-scale conservation. Landscape-scale conservation projects help wildlife move through connected habitats, rather than isolated nature reserves. They help nature recover across entire river catchments, coastlines and countryside. 

These approaches have delivered important successes, including the return of species like bitterns, cranes and egrets to restored wetlands. But to truly reverse wildlife loss, ecosystems must also regain the natural processes that shape them. 

Since 2022, thanks to generous support from the Ecological Restoration Fund, we’ve been working to promote rewilding and speed up nature’s recovery across the UK.  

As the nature and climate crises become more severe, and their impacts on wildlife and communities become clearer, this work has never been more important.

Keystone species: restoring nature’s engineers 

Keystone species can transform landscapes and benefit many other species. The Wildlife Trusts are working to restore many keystone species including beavers, large herbivores such as semi-wild cattle, ponies, elk, bison and wild boar, as well as lynx. 
 

Beavers: the ultimate river rewilders

The return of the Eurasian beaver is one of the most exciting examples of rewilding in Britain. 

Beavers are nature’s river engineers. By building dams and creating wetlands, they reshape rivers in ways that benefit both wildlife and people. These wetlands can: 

• slow down water and help reduce flooding
• filter pollutants and improve water quality
• store carbon in wet soils
• create valuable habitat for fish, birds, amphibians and insects 

Following Scotland’s lead, the governments of England and Wales have given legal protection to the small number of beavers already living wild after escaping from enclosures. This follows the pioneering work of Devon Wildlife Trust on the River Otter, which showed that beavers can be successfully managed in the landscape. Releasing beavers into the wild still requires a licence. Systems are now in place in Scotland and England, although they have yet to be introduced in Wales. 

Working with partners including Beaver Trust, Forestry England and the National Trust, The Wildlife Trusts are supporting more than 20 beaver reintroduction proposals. In February 2026, Cornwall Wildlife Trust achieved a major milestone with the first formal wild beaver reintroduction in Cornwall licensed release of wild beavers. 
 

Large herbivores – the shapers of grasslands and woodlands 

Large grazing animals play a vital role in shaping ecosystems. 

Research by ecologist Frans Vera suggests that Europe’s natural landscapes were once a dynamic mix of woodland, scrub and open grassland created by grazing animals such as wild cattle, horses, deer and bison.  

These animals create space for wildlife by: 

• opening up woodland
• creating glades and scrub
• dispersing seeds
• supporting insects and birds through dung and disturbance 

While some of these species such as aurochs and tarpan are now extinct, conservation grazing with hardy cattle and horses can recreate some of these natural processes today. Projects like the bison introduction at West Blean and Thornden Woods demonstrate how large herbivores can help restore natural woodland dynamics. 

Lynx 

The Eurasian lynx once roamed Britain’s forests. Shy and elusive, lynx are purely woodland animals whose main diet is roe deer. 

The Wildlife Trusts are working with the Lifescape Project to explore whether returning lynx could be ecologically feasible and socially acceptable in parts of Britain with large, connected woodland landscapes. There are only a few places in the UK that have enough woodland with few roads to be confident of a successful reintroduction.  

Recovering nature at a landscape scale 

‘Big’ matters for nature restoration – the greater the area, the more likely species diversity and abundance can be restored. We need to work not just in our nature reserves but across landscapes, and urgently. 

Governments recognise this urgency. Through international nature and climate agreements, countries have committed to tackling these challenges. For nature, the key agreement is the Convention on Biological Diversity, first agreed in 1992. It is now supported by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which includes a target to restore 30% of degraded land and sea by 2030 (30 by 30). 

One approach to 30 by 30 are the government-backed landscape recovery projects. In England, Wildlife Trusts are involved in 20 landscape recovery projects and lead on 11 of those, including: 

• the East Dartmoor Landscape Recovery Project led by Devon Wildlife Trust
• the Darent Valley Landscape Recovery Project led by Kent Wildlife Trust
• collaborative river restoration programmes such as Rivers 2040 for the River Trent catchment or the restoration partnerships such as Big Chalk. 

These projects bring together landowners, communities and conservation organisations to create landscapes where farming, wildlife and people can thrive together. 

One of the more ambitious landscape recovery programmes is the Aviva-funded Atlantic Rainforest programme. We are acquiring at least 2,000 hectares of land to plant trees that will eventually become new temperate rainforests. This is a part of 100-year vision and journey to restore the Atlantic rainforest biome across the western parts of Britain and Northern Ireland as well as the Isle of Man. 
 

Restoring peatlands

Peatlands are among the UK’s most important ecosystems. Their diversity from the mountain tops to coasts and many areas in between mean they provide a critical habitat for a variety of species. 

Healthy peat bogs: 

• store vast amounts of carbon
• regulate water flows
• support unique wildlife
• help provide clean drinking water 

However, around 70% of the UK’s peatlands are degraded due to drainage, agriculture, forestry and burning. 

Restoration focuses on allowing peat-forming plants — particularly sphagnum moss — to recover and restart the natural process of peat formation. 

Large partnerships such as the Great North Bog initiative are restoring peatlands across northern England, reconnecting landscapes and locking away carbon for the long term. 

Rewilding our seas and coasts 

The UK’s seas were once among the most productive in the world. Yet climate change and pressures such as intensive fishing practices and pollution have damaged them.  

Rewilding at sea focuses on reducing human pressures and allowing marine ecosystems to recover, including:

• strengthening marine protected areas, which often are designated but with few real powers to allow nature recovery
• reducing destructive fishing methods
• restoring coastal habitats such as saltmarsh and mudflats 

Along the coast, managed realignment — allowing the sea to reclaim low-lying land in carefully planned areas — can restore tidal wetlands that protect communities from flooding while providing vital habitat for wildlife. 

Looking to the future 

Rewilding is not about turning back the clock or removing people from landscapes. Instead, it is about working with nature so ecosystems can recover. 

By restoring natural processes, reconnecting landscapes and bringing back key species, we can help create a future where nature is once again abundant across land and sea. 

This is essential not only for wildlife, but also for climate stability, clean water, healthy soils and thriving communities.