Born to be wild? Does the future of marginal farming lie in the untapped potential of Rewilding?

Before I applied for my Nuffield Farming Scholarship I was working in Cumbria within the Lake District National Park. During this time, I was witnessing two situations that motivated my application for a scholarship. Firstly, witnessing first-hand the decline of biodiversity across both my immediate locality and across the whole of the United Kingdom. Secondly, at the same time as a biodiversity crisis, I believe we were, and still are, entering a farming crisis especially for those who farm in marginal areas, specifically the uplands. The question I wanted to address was: ‘Is there one solution to both the biodiversity and farming crisis?’

With the support of Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust, my lead sponsors, the Worshipful Company of Farmers with Savills, along with others including Rowse Honey, I embarked on a journey that would turn out to be not only enlightening for my study but life changing personally for myself as well. With the kind support of these organisations, I was able to search for a solution to these two issues and to see if my outgoing idea of rewilding is the solution I envisioned.

For me rewilding is a term that can have a multitude of definitions, each with their own emotional response. However, from my perspective it is restoring natural processes at a landscape scale. With this definition in mind, I wanted to visit designated rewilding sites, as well as farms and businesses not ‘rewilding’ but who were practising non-conventional land management.

During my four months of independent  travels, I visited Germany, Denmark, Scotland, Netherlands, Chile, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania (Pemba island). These countries have varied climates, varied environments, varied cultures and varied agricultural systems. However, the commonality between them is declining biodiversity and in large parts, struggling agricultural sectors.

To give my topic greater focus, within the overall theme of rewilding, I wanted to split my attention to three fields: environmental, social and economic. While travelling to some of the most wild areas on earth within parts of Chilean Patagonia and during my African leg, it became clear that a large part of my study topic was the importance of society and social interaction. This was something I had not fully appreciated before my study travels. The importance of the social pillar of sustainability is perhaps something that is regularly overshadowed by the more regular focus on the environmental and economic pillars.

What I found across all the various countries and projects that I visited was not exactly what my preconceived ideas were. No matter if I was visiting the Patagonia National Park or the smallest farmer on Pemba Island, something was constantly appearing. Diversification was the key element for all projects that were achieving the three pillars of sustainability. Although some projects were not openly ‘rewilding’, they were still achieving my definition of working with natural processes. This led to product and income diversification and increased social cohesion both on and off farm. Perhaps most excitingly this diversification was delivering environmental improvements.