A NETWORK of rewilding projects in Scotland proves that there does not need to be connection between rewilding and depopulation, according to a charity.
The Northwoods Rewilding Network was started by rewilding charity Scotland: The Big Picture back in 2021 and has since amassed more than 70 partners with landholdings across Scotland.
Ranging from community-centred sites such as a Comrie Croft in Perthshire to private farms and estates, the owners and managers all commit to rewilding areas of their land in various capacities: from woodland creation to enriching wetlands.
In an article for The National, Hugh Webster of Scotland: The Big Picture writes that concerns rewilding may result in depopulation in rural areas of Scotland have not been witnessed in the Northwoods project.
He said: “Wildness is not incompatible with people, only with the total subjugation of nature and the culture of human hegemony.
“Wildness means allowing nature to chart its own course, freeing it from artificial constraints, but it doesn’t set people apart from nature; rather it reconnects us with the natural world, our place within it and our reliance on it.
“There are a growing number of examples where rewilding is not just being informed by, but is being actively led by, local people.
“And perhaps nowhere is this trend more evident than within Scotland: The Big Picture’s Northwoods Rewilding Network.
“This is a nationwide community of landowners dedicated to rewilding principles, where one in five of the network’s land partners are now community-owned landholdings.”
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Northwoods project lead James Nairne told The National that people and the local economies which support them were integral parts of the rewilding project.
“People are part of nature – and that's fully reflected in the Northwoods approach to rewilding,” he said.
"'Connecting with communities’ and ’creating rewilding business’ are fundamental principles of the network that we work with every day”.
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