One of the problems with rewilding, as a friend knowledgeable in this area mentioned to me at the weekend, is that the people who are generally enthusiastic about it are not the ones who own the land that they want to see rewilded.
And their point was that this means the biggest proponents of rewilding can afford to be idealistic about what would they like to happen to land when they don’t rely on it to give them an income.
But one exception to this rule is the Knepp Castle rewilding project in West Sussex, which was mentioned as an exemplary project in the government’s 25-year environmental plan (which I will be writing about in the next few days).
This strikes me as a really inspiring and exciting project which also seems to be delivering a healthy profit to the owners – perhaps not surprising when you consider how much it costs to stay there.
Nonetheless, it shows what can be done and offers hope that more land might be managed in similar ways in the future.
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