Latest Rewilding Innovation Fund recipients announced

Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Ouseburn Valley has retained a diverse range of habitats and green spaces since its transformation over recent years into a thriving cultural and creative quarter that supports many businesses.
We’re funding a study that will look at the potential for community-integrated rewilding to increase access to nature in the area. 

Funding will help set up and run the Hampshire and Isle of Wight local group. By connecting local rewilders through a variety of communications activities, the group aims to share learning, provide access to specialist knowledge, improve ecological monitoring, and increase rewilding.

A new network hosted by Climate Action North will expand the support provided through the North East Rewilding Network to local rewilding projects, crucially making connections between land, sea and community.

Less than an hour from Edinburgh, Glenlude is accessible to a wide audience and has become an important hub for volunteering and engagement. 

The funding will support a woodland scoping study that will help shape a plan for native woodland restoration that complements low-impact forestry.

The funding will be used by Trees For Life to support the second phase of the impactful Lynx to Scotland project, which will examine the potential barriers and concerns expressed during the initial consultation. Uncover more about the Eurasian Lynx and the role they play in the landscape.

We are funding a feasibility study for white-tailed eagle reintroduction, an apex predator that has already started making a comeback in Scotland. Eating mostly fish, birds, smaller mammals and carrion, the white-tailed eagle needs large-scale, fully functioning ecosystems that support an abundant web of life.

At a former opencast mine, the funding will support eDNA testing of soils to inform the rewilding strategy for Wilding West Chevington and provide a baseline for soil fungal and bacterial communities, essential for measuring improved soil health.

Sphagnum mosses are a small but remarkable group of ecosystem engineers particularly important at Kingsdale Head. There are around 30 species in the UK capable of a range of colours, structures and functions. The funding will support the reintroduction of two sphagnum species to the peatland restoration areas.

This project aims to restore seagrass meadows and native oyster reefs in the Medway and Swale Estuary, Kent, to rewild the area at the seascape scale. The funding will be used to identify a baseline to measure improvements against.

Knepp has been a rewilding pioneer for over two decades. In that time, the team has tracked some of the most extraordinary journeys of nature recovery. The funding will be used to develop a new Wild Data portal to allow others to explore the project’s rewilding journey.

In Scotland’s Regional Park, Yearn Stane plans to use drone surveys and a 4k camera to survey over 5,000ha of peatland to inform restoration, provide key data and capture footage for future public engagement activities. Our funding will support these surveys.