A new fund to tackle the climate crisis is being launched by charity Rewilding Britain, with £100,000 to be awarded to one large-scale rewilding project every year.
The Rewilding Challenge Fund has been set up to nurture innovative initiatives which show maximum potential for upscaling rewilding on land and at sea.
Sara King, manager at Rewilding Britain, said: “We’re looking to scale-up rewilding – a vital step if Britain is to achieve the goal of major nature restoration across 30% of the country’s land and seas by 2030.
“We’re really keen to hear from community groups who can join together to bid for ambitious, large-scale rewilding projects, as well as from the managers and users of large areas of land and sea.”
Rewilding is the large-scale restoration of nature to the point where it can take care of itself again. It involves reinstating natural processes and, where appropriate, native missing species.
Rewilding Britain is calling for major nature recovery across 30% of Britain’s land and seas by 2030 – including core rewilding areas of native forest, peatland, grasslands, wetlands, rivers and coastal areas across 5% of the country; with no loss of productive farmland.
The charity is launching its fund ahead of the crucial UN biodiversity summit COP15 in December, to demonstrate rewilding’s growing support and its huge potential for helping Britain reverse nature loss and meet its climate targets.
The increasing popularity of rewilding has been highlighted by the growth of Rewilding Britain’s Rewilding Network, which brings together a wide range of community groups, farmers, landowners, land managers and local groups across Britain to share experiences and expertise.
The network now includes almost 900 members, covering more than 113,000 hectares of land and more than 300 square kilometres of seas.
Rewilding Britain is inviting those interested in applying for the fund to submit a short expression of interest before 17 January. Applicants must be members of the Rewilding Network, or be eligible to join.
Successful applicants will be invited to submit a full application, and the winning project will be announced by the end of March.
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