Rewilding, Climate Change and Wildlife Welfare

Rewilding — restoring natural ecosystems — offers both conservation and welfare benefits by creating habitats where animals can live natural lives, while also helping ecosystems adapt to climate change.

Key Facts

Rewilding projects including Knepp Estate in Sussex have restored breeding populations of turtle doves, nightingales and purple emperor butterflies
Reintroduced beavers in Scotland create wetland habitats that benefit dozens of other species
Rewilded landscapes show 3-4x higher vertebrate diversity than intensively managed agricultural land
Ecosystem connectivity through rewilding allows animal range shifts in response to climate warming
Rewilded areas typically require much lower ongoing intervention than nature reserves with active management

Welfare Considerations

Rewilding offers perhaps the most positive vision available in animal welfare — creating landscapes where animals can live natural lives at scale, expressing the full range of their behavioral needs, in ecosystems that are increasingly capable of self-regulation. The welfare contrast with intensive agricultural landscapes, where animals live depleted, restricted lives often in pain, could not be more stark. Beyond individual species welfare, rewilding creates connected habitats that allow animals to respond to climate change by shifting ranges — reducing a growing source of wildlife welfare harm. Supporting rewilding is supporting animal welfare at landscape scale.

What You Can Do

Support rewilding organizations including Rewilding Britain and Trees for Life
Advocate for agricultural policy reform that rewards rewilding and nature recovery
Reduce meat consumption to free up agricultural land for habitat restoration
Learn about rewilding projects in your region and get involved in monitoring or volunteer work