Nine innovative rewilding projects awarded funding boost

Connecting local rewilding projects, as well as the rewilders themselves, is an effective way to support large scale nature restoration. The Community Rewilding hubs project by the Yorkshire Rewilding Network is linking local networks of rewilders allowing the sharing of rewilding inspiration, experience and skills and engendering positive views of rewilding. This project will provide a blueprint for other county networks, showcasing how more people can get involved in rewilding even if they don’t own or manage land.

Seawilding is a community-led project showcasing how we can restore marine ecosystems. The funding is giving three more interns the opportunity to work on native oyster and seagrass restoration, supporting their career progression into marine rewilding and restoration. Imparting valuable skills and knowledge to the next generation of marine rewilders is essential, given the biodiversity emergency that we face. Opportunities for practical experience can be hard to come by, especially on projects that are at the forefront of developing new approaches to marine restoration.

Radnorshire Wildlife Trust is on a mission to change the perception of rewilding in Wales. The project aims to engage with farmers and landowners to show how rewilding can work with and support food production in the landscape. This funding will help engage with stakeholders to showcase the benefits of rewilding, crucially incorporating the point of view of farmers and landowners, who have excellent local knowledge of the landscape. 

This exciting, modern and innovative project from the Devon Rewilding Network is exploring the role AI can play in rewilding. Funding from the Rewilding Innovation Fund will help develop their use of AI technology which will use existing drone footage to demonstrate how land could be better connected through rewilding. Connecting up rewilding initiatives is important to give nature enough space to thrive, however it can be difficult to visualise what rewilding might look like in Britain. This project aims not only to connect up landowners at the catchment level, but also to showcase how our landscapes could look in the future.

This funding will help Northumberland Wildlife Trust continue to develop its pioneering Hadrian’s Wall: Recovering Nature project by supporting plans to enhance community engagement with innovative uses of technology. Acoustic recording devices will be deployed throughout the project area to monitor and identify species in real time, giving visitors to The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre a unique glimpse into the diverse ecosystems of the National Park. The project is bridging the gap between the community and the natural world, showing how soundscape technology can improve our understanding of change within the landscape as well as connecting people with nature.

This funding will support COAST in their Fish, Infauna and Finance project by helping consolidate and analyse crucial survey and monitoring data to assess not only the increased biodiversity of Arran’s seas but also how the marine environment supports the health, wellbeing and economic prosperity of Arran’s residents. COAST is one of the most established marine rewilding projects in Britain, taking pioneering approaches to how we can restore marine biodiversity to our seas, led by the local community. This project aims to improve our evidence base to show the change happening within the area, and how this might be applied to other marine projects.

Dalnacardoch Estate covers 7,500 hectares within the Cairngorms National Park and is the location of an exciting 100-year rewilding project managed by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. This funding will help kickstart the Trust’s river restoration plans to restore Edendon Water, a highly-managed river which runs through the Estate, to its former glory. Feasibility studies such as these as vitally important for kick-starting natural processes, but it can be difficult to access funding. River restoration will be the first intervention the Trust undertakes on the site, and will act as a springboard for nature recovery across the wider Estate.