The Roadmap to Increasing Biodiversity
Biodiversity has collapsed by roughly 60% around the world since 1970 and that number is even worse if you consider freshwater habitats. The UK’s record is as poor as everyone else’s.
This disastrous loss in biodiversity can be boiled down to a single cause. The planet has become less wild. To restore biodiversity we need nature to recover and that led me to the concept of rewilding. It is a new conservation narrative which positively appreciates the importance of wild nature. Traditional conservation is often focused on small nature reserves which are heavily managed in order to optimise for a particular species. These efforts are of course commendable but rewilding is about letting nature lead, not us. Rewilding seeks to reinstate natural processes. With rewilding plant growth accelerates, soil health improves and many animals and insects return to these regenerated habitats.
We learned from Rewilding Britain that currently 13% of Britain has tree cover compared to 40% in the EU. Rewilding Britain is targeting 30% by 2030. This 30% is made up of two components, core rewilding sites at 5% and Nature Enhancing Land at 25%. Agriculture represents 71% of land use in the UK, two thirds of which is used for livestock .