Words by Smiley Team
Nature requires much love and care if it's to continue sustaining life on Earth. So it comes as positive news that the British government has announced new funding for farmers in England to rewild their land.
As part of the new Environmental Land Management schemes, the government is accepting bids for 10 to 15 pilot projects to rewild expanses of land from 500 to 5,000 hectares in size.
They will distribute funding via a Local Nature Recovery scheme and a Landscape Recovery scheme, Environment Secretary George Eustice announced.
[Discover more stories about ways we can protect and restore habitats for life on land]
Environmentalists welcomed the move, including Professor Alastair Driver, director of Rewilding Britain, who said: “With Britain one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and some 70% of its land given over to farming, the Landscape Recovery proposals signal by far the most significant step-change for land use policy in England I have seen in over four decades working as a professional nature conservationist.”
However, he also hopes the government will scale up their efforts, adding: “There is scope for much more ambition if we are to see 30% of Britain undergoing major nature recovery 2030.”
Now that the government have announced their wish to support local nature, campaigners across the UK call for a much greater push towards this goal.
[Read more positive news about initiatives working towards a better world for us all]
Joel Scott-Halkes, a co-founder of rewilding organisation Wild Card, responded to the news saying: “Today's further details about the UK's post-Brexit subsidy plans show a promising direction of travel, but are recklessly unambitious.”
He added: "Wild Card is redoubling its call for the UK's biggest landowners to take responsibility where the government is not by rewilding up to half their landholdings, as soon as possible. The futures of our children and grandchildren depend on it."
To help build momentum for rewilding and return the UK to its former natural glory, join or support Wild Card.
