Moving the political dial on rewilding
It’s been quite a journey for Rewilding Britain since those heady pre-election days back in June when we launched our Rewilding Manifesto. Policy and Advocacy Lead Oliver Newham shares some exciting campaign successes.
Published 06/11/2024
The crucial asks of our decision-makers included in the Rewilding Manifesto — forming a roadmap to rewild 30% of our land and seas by 2030 — were immediately adopted and championed by thousands of you, something we’re immensely grateful for. Our campaign and petition quickly surpassed 18,700 signatures, and now as we move to the next phase of our influencing work, we want to take the time to celebrate with you the political traction we’ve made, thanks to your help.
First off, we’d like to say a big thank you to all those who signed our petition urging the government to truly commit to nature recovery, by dedicating 30% of land and seas to rewilding by 2030. That’s almost 19,000 of you, from all corners of Britain!
More than 3,000 of you also emailed your MP, helping us to make strides in bringing rewilding to the top of the agenda for the new UK Government, at a time when it’s crucial for our politicians not to lose focus on big, bold solutions to the nature and climate emergencies.
“Rewilding Britain… took me to see Sussex Bay – these are brilliant examples of rewilding in practice on land and in the sea.”
MP emailing their local constituent
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Thanks to your help we’ve seen impressive levels of engagement on rewilding from MPs, with record numbers getting in touch with us and more importantly committing to support 30% rewilding in this parliament.
- Dozens of MPs have pledged to support our Rewilding Manifesto.
- Politicians from all sides of the political spectrum have and are arranging to talk face-to-face with us in Westminster about policy solutions – we’ve three coming up next week alone.
- We’ve briefed MPs ahead of crucial debates, met and discussed rewilding solutions with ministers and lobbied key officials within Defra and other government departments – on issues from producing a land use strategy to adequately funding natural flood management solutions to getting on with sanctioning wild beaver releases.
- We were invited by political parties to present at their conferences to members and leaders how rewilding can be the solution to the climate and biodiversity crisis.
- We’re getting MPs out to see rewilding in action too, inviting and arranging to take them on guided tours of Rewilding Network sites. We believe this can be a real lightbulb moment, helping political leaders really experience and ‘get’ the potential of rewilding.
This autumn, we’ve been able to take our vision of a wilder future right across Britain as we took the manifesto on the road to the party conferences. Here are a few highlights of how we’ve been able to share with leaders the big, bold steps we believe are necessary to restore nature.
- Met ministers, MPs, advisors and party members at the Labour Party conference where we had a rewilding-themed exhibition stand.
- Organised a panel discussion on the importance of species reintroductions at the Labour Party conference, in partnership with Beaver Trust. It was standing room only and packed out with leading thinkers brimming with ideas.
- Delivered a beach comb and ocean-themed panel debate in partnership with the Marine Conservation Society at the Liberal Democrats conference, alongside MPs and Rewilding Network members.
- Took part in a panel debate on land use with the NFU at the Conservative Party conference, hosted by the Conservative Environment Network.
We couldn’t have made the important recent strides in bringing our progressive rewilding solutions to decision-makers without your support. This is just the beginning of our journey to rewild 30% of Britain – we’ve still got a long way to go, to move words of support into action, and we’ll need your help again to get there.
If you haven’t already, please send us any response you get from your MP to info@rewildingbritain.org.uk, and do keep urging them to meet with us as, together, we can demand and see that the UK Government #ThinkBigActWild for nature, people and planet.
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