A profound shift is unfolding across our landscapes. It’s transforming how we perceive and manage agricultural land, and redefining our very relationship with the planet. This is the essence of the transition towards rewilding, a gentle yet revolutionary movement.
Farmers, guided by a growing ecological understanding, are beginning to reimagine fields. They see them not merely as sites for annual crops, but as canvases for the enduring beauty and boundless resilience of trees and natural processes. This change acknowledges a wisdom often overlooked: that true abundance might flourish when human intent aligns with nature’s ancient design, allowing forests to return and wildness to thrive.
This transition delves into the very essence of ecological restoration. It moves beyond the familiar cycles of planting and harvest to embrace the longer rhythms of trees and the intricate web of life they support.
As George Monbiot passionately articulates in Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life, rewilding is “the partial or full restoration of an ecosystem by human hands, with little or no human interference.” It is not about abandonment, but about intelligent, gentle guidance, allowing natural processes to lead the way.
For farmers, this means a brave re-evaluation of land use. They might dedicate marginal areas, or even entire tracts, to the slow, magnificent resurgence of woodlands, hedgerows, and complex ecosystems. The philosophical underpinning is a profound trust in nature’s capacity to heal and regenerate. This offers both environmental renewal and new, unexpected pathways to prosperity, particularly as the viability of some areas of animal agriculture faces increasing challenges with changing UK eating habits.
Practically, this transition can manifest in diverse forms across the UK. Some farmers are embracing agroforestry, carefully integrating trees into existing agricultural systems. This creates shelterbelts that protect crops and livestock, enriches soil, and diversifies income through timber or fruit.
These trees offer invaluable benefits to animal agriculture itself. They provide essential shade and shelter for livestock, reducing heat stress in warmer months and offering protection from wind and rain in colder seasons. This can lead to improved animal welfare and productivity, as animals expend less energy regulating their body temperature.
Furthermore, certain tree species can provide nutritional and medicinal browse for livestock, enriching their diets and potentially reducing reliance on external supplements. While uncontrolled, high-density grazing can hinder woodland regeneration, carefully managed silvopastoral systems (integrating trees with grazing animals) can actually mimic the beneficial impact of wild herbivores, creating diverse woodland structures and promoting biodiversity. This thoughtful integration of trees into livestock farming demonstrates how agricultural land can become more resilient and ecologically rich.
Others are dedicating larger parcels of land to passive rewilding. They allow natural succession to take hold, perhaps with initial native tree planting to accelerate the process. Projects like the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, beautifully chronicled by Isabella Tree in Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm, serve as powerful examples.
Here, a conventional farm transitioned to a rewilding project, demonstrating how ecological restoration can bring back lost biodiversity, enhance natural flood management, and create new economic opportunities through eco-tourism and natural capital markets.
The economic implications of these transitions are increasingly compelling. While initial investment may be required for rewilding or establishing agroforestry systems, various UK government schemes, such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT), offer financial support for environmental land management and woodland creation.
Organisations like Rewilding Britain also provide grants, with their Innovation Fund offering up to £15,000 for qualifying projects. The long-term benefits can be substantial, as evidenced by recent data: an analysis of 33 rewilding projects in England alone revealed a 54% increase in full-time equivalent jobs over a decade, spanning roles in nature tourism, education, and ecological management.
For instance, the Knepp Estate’s thriving nature tourism business now generates a turnover of approximately £800,000 per year with a 22% profit margin. Agroforestry systems, by diversifying income streams from both agricultural products and tree-based outputs, can also enhance overall farm productivity and resilience to market fluctuations, with some silvoarable schemes showing a 20% average yield advantage compared to monoculture. This financial diversification is becoming increasingly vital as the UK agricultural sector faces challenges from rising input costs and evolving consumer preferences, which are gradually reducing the viability of some traditional animal agriculture models.
Beyond these direct economic gains, the profound benefit of these transitions lies in their capacity for carbon drawdown, a crucial element in addressing the climate crisis. Rewilding projects, even those focused on scrub and grassland, have been shown to sequester and store substantial volumes of atmospheric carbon dioxide, particularly below ground in the soil, with rates comparable to newly planted native woodlands over their first 20 years.
For example, a single hectare of new native broadleaf woodland in the UK can store between 300 to 350 tonnes of carbon over a century. The Woodland Carbon Code, a quality assurance standard, has seen 9,700 hectares of new woodland validated in 2023/2024, projected to sequester over 2.2 million tonnes of CO₂ over their lifetimes.
Agroforestry systems also offer significant carbon capture potential: silvoarable systems can lock up an estimated 8 tonnes of CO₂ per hectare per year over 30 years, while silvopastoral systems (with around 400 trees per hectare on grassland) are predicted to sequester 16 tonnes of CO₂ per hectare per year over 40 years. Indeed, research suggests that establishing silvopastoral agroforestry on just 30% of UK grassland could lead to net-zero emissions from the grassland sector by 2050, with a net sequestration rate of 21 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year by 2062. This powerful ability to absorb and store carbon highlights the transformative role of rewilding and agroforestry in contributing to the UK’s net-zero targets and fostering a healthier planet.
The approach of rewilding and agroforestry offers a compelling contrast to purely technological solutions like carbon-capture technologies, presenting itself not merely as an alternative, but often as a profound improvement. While carbon capture typically focuses singularly on extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, often through energy-intensive industrial processes, and at a staggering economic cost – with recent research from Oxford and Stanford universities suggesting that heavy reliance on such technologies could cost tens of trillions more globally than a transition to renewables – the beauty of nature-based solutions lies in their inherent multifunctionality and their ability to address a multitude of interconnected crises simultaneously.
It is noteworthy that a significant proportion of industrially captured CO2 is currently used for Enhanced Oil Recovery, a process that ultimately leads to the re-release of that carbon into the atmosphere when the dislodged fossil fuels are burned, or used to produce hydrocarbon fuels that are then burned, creating a questionable net benefit. This stands in stark contrast to natural processes.
Beyond simply drawing down carbon – a vital function they perform with significant efficacy, often at scales vastly outstripping current technological deployment – these natural practices regenerate entire ecosystems. They restore biodiversity, enhance critical ecosystem services such as natural flood management, and revitalise soils, building organic matter and improving fertility.
Furthermore, these transitions open new, diversified economic pathways for landowners, creating jobs and fostering a deeper connection between people and the land. This includes the emergence of offshoot businesses from managed forests, such as the cultivation of specialty mushrooms on wood waste or the production of biochar from forest thinnings and spent mushroom substrate. These ventures not only add to the landowner’s income but also contribute to a circular economy, turning what might be considered waste into valuable resources.
In essence, while carbon-capture technology is a targeted intervention, rewilding and agroforestry represent a holistic partnership with nature. They are not just about fixing a single problem, but about healing and enriching the entire living system. They offer a more resilient, self-sustaining, and inherently beautiful path forward, demonstrating that the most powerful solutions often arise when we work with the earth’s profound wisdom, rather than attempting to engineer our way out of ecological challenges in isolation. This integrated approach fosters not only environmental health but also economic stability and human well-being, creating a future that is richer in every sense.
Eco-tourism, in particular, offers a multifaceted array of benefits. For the land, it provides a powerful incentive for conservation and restoration, as healthy, biodiverse ecosystems become the very attraction, encouraging further rewilding and careful stewardship.
For landowners, it opens diverse new revenue streams, moving away from potentially volatile agricultural markets towards income generated from visitor experiences, accommodation, guided tours, and educational programmes. This financial diversification can provide greater stability and reward environmental improvements.
For the general public, eco-tourism offers invaluable access to nature, fostering a deeper connection to the environment and promoting understanding of ecological processes. It provides opportunities for recreation, education, and inspiration, enhancing mental and physical well-being through immersion in revitalised landscapes. Indeed, being surrounded by trees and natural environments has been scientifically linked to reduced stress levels, improved mood, and enhanced cognitive function, offering a profound, yet often overlooked, health benefit to individuals. This holistic approach offers a living blueprint for others contemplating such a profound change
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Bibliography
Monbiot, George. Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life. Allen Lane, 2013. Tree, Isabella. Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm. Picador, 2018.