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Our impact report 2025-6

‘Our story of hope’ demonstrates the impact our work has had on accelerating rewilding across Britain in this past year. 

We produce an Impact Report annually to demonstrate our impact as a charity, reporting on how we’re putting our Wild by Nature strategy into practice to drive systemic change across Britain. Combined with our financial statements it tells the full story of how we’ve accelerated and championed rewilding across Britain, how we raised and spent our money, and how we operate as an organisation.

Within the pages of this year’s Impact Report, ​‘Our story of hope’, you’ll discover how we’ve grown rewilding into a national movement, shifted the political dial, and supported ground-level teams scaling up nature recovery.

Whether you’ve taken action on a campaign, partnered with us, donated, helped shape our ambitious strategy or are rewilding where you live, thank you – we couldn’t have done this without you. Reshaping a system takes many hands.

Cover image impact report

Read our Impact Report

Dig deeper into our impact across Britain in the full report.

A year in impact

2025-26 was the first year of our new Wild by Nature strategy to drive systemic change across Britain. Here are just a few highlights. 

GROWING A REWILDING MOVEMENT

  • Six million people reached icon

    SIX MILLION PEOPLE REACHED

    We engaged millions nationwide with our campaign, growing our supporter base by 25% (to 67,000+) and generating 7,100+ emails urging MPs to push rewilding – forging key policymaker relationships and building a movement ready to take action.

  • Handshake icon

    A POWERFUL COMMUNITY OF BACKERS

    We mobilised 3,290 donors who contributed £2.3 million to accelerate our work – demonstrating deep trust in our movement and ensuring resilient, flexible funding to scale up rewilding nationwide.

  • Simple icon of man, woman, lynx and white stork

    A DECADE OF WILD PROGRESS

    We celebrated our 10-year anniversary with activists and supporters, marking our journey from a niche idea into a national movement, establishing the urgent need for political investment, and building momentum for the decade ahead.

SHIFTING THE POLITICAL DIAL

  • Location pinpoint icon

    PUTTING REWILDING ON DEFRA​’S MAP

    We mobilised 6,000+ supporters, generating four in five of the consultation emails received by Defra, to help secure a framework where 6% of England’s land is identified for transitioning primarily to nature and climate recovery.

  • Pen and land icon

    SECURING BOLD REFORMS FOR SCOTLAND

    We influenced the Land Reform Bill to require landowner biodiversity plans, co-hosted the country’s first Rewilding Hustings, and surpassed
    10,000 signatures for the Rewilding Nation Charter – shaping a bolder future for Scotland’s nature.

  • sapling icon

    SEEDING A WELSH WAY TO REWILD

    We co-founded the Welsh Rewilding Alliance to campaign together, launching The Welsh Way to Wild report and gaining formal recognition
    of rewilding by Natural Resources Wales for vital coastal enhancement work.

SCALING UP AND INNOVATING

  • A simple woodland scene in icon format

    MOMENTUM ON LAND AND AT SEA

    We expanded our Rewilding Network to support 1,000+ practitioners in their restoration of 260,000+ hectares of land and 500+ km2 of sea – whose stories and insights show that rewilding works on the ground.

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    SUPERCHARGING REWILDING

    We surpassed £1 million in seed funding to 86 Rewilding Innovation Fund projects, removing critical early-stage barriers, and awarded the annual £100,000 Rewilding Challenge Fund to a fourth project, demonstrating ambitious, landscape-scale restoration partnership working in practice.

  • simple measuring gradient RB icon

    MEASURING REAL IMPACT

    We developed, piloted, and published the UK’s first Rewilding Monitoring Framework, equipping practitioners and environmental bodies with the crucial ecological, social, and economic evidence needed to convince decision-makers and doubters alike.

Voices of hope

Hear how our Rewilding Network and unique funding opportunities are making a difference on the ground. 

  • Ella Davies tending to a tree
    “It was genuinely life changing and enabled me to find a voice I didn’t know I had, and gave me that step up into the world of conservation.”

    Ella Davis, Penpont Project

    supported by our Rewilding Innovation Fund

  • “The Rewilding Innovation Fund has enabled vital early-stage work to support beaver-led ecosystem restoration, delivering immediate ecological benefits.”

    Alex Farris

    Rewilding the Highland with Beavers

  • Jenny barlow tarras water rewilding
    “The Network has been such a support for us as we started out on our journey. The in-person events are a fantastic way to link with others across Britain.”

    Jenny Barlow

    Estate Manager, The Langholm Initiative

  • “It was massively satisfying for me to take the step from having an interest in rewilding to becoming a match funder for the latest round of the Innovation Fund.”

    Mark Gordon

    Rewilding Britain donor

Signals of change

From grassroots action to shaping the national policy debate, see how we’ve driven systemic change for Britain’s nature and communities, in these real-world stories.

  • Inspecting and sorting oysters

    Investing in internships

    Backed by our Rewilding Innovation Fund, Seawilding is training young marine biologists – boosting biodiversity, capturing carbon and creating green jobs.

  • Yorkshire Rewilding Network's (former) Rewilding Hubs Officer, Claire Blindell, with a harvest mouse box.

    Supporting grassroots action

    By backing Yorkshire Rewilding Network’s new rewilding hubs, we’re uniting communities and inspiring change at every scale – from window boxes to large estates.

  • Stage with politicians above sign saying no question too wild at hustings event

    Holding politicians to account

    This year we co-hosted Scotland’s first rewilding hustings ahead of the Holyrood elections, ensuring candidates could not ignore the future of nature.

  • Men with binoculars at rewilding gathering at Wild Haweswater

    Connecting Britain’s rewilders

    Bringing 60 practitioners to Cumbria’s bison and beaver sites, our annual Gathering has helped rewilders connect, share challenges, and reignite their passion.

  • Two men monitoring with camera trap at rewilding site Tir Natur

    A wilder Wales

    In co-founding the Welsh Rewilding Alliance, we’re uniting diverse voices across Wales to put rewilding at the heart of national policy and practice.

Our finances

Every pound entrusted to us is stewarded with care and used where it matters most. By keeping our funding flexible yet targeted, we turn the support we receive into a catalyst for nature’s recovery across Britain. For a full breakdown of our accounts for the year ending 31 March 2026, please refer to our Report and financial statements.

How we were funded this year

Thanks to the fantastic support of loyal and new donors, our income reached £2.3 million over the year – demonstrating deep trust in our movement and ensuring resilient, flexible funding to scale up rewilding nationwide.

  • Charitable trusts and foundations
    £1,295,043
  • Regular and one-off donations
    £357,774
  • Corporate donations
    £367,532
  • Major philanthropic donations
    £231,150
  • Investment income
    £42,647
  • Legacies
    £5,086
  • Brand licence fees and merchandise
    £2,558

How we spent our money this year

In 2025-26, we paid out funds totalling £2.8 million to accelerate rewilding, in line with our strategy to maximise charitable impact by spending down our reserves. This chart shows how this was spent across our strategic objectives. 

  • Enable rewilding
    £746,051
  • Support rewilding innovation
    £737,666
  • Normalise rewilding
    £545,182
  • Raising funds
    £404,833
  • Scale up rewilding
    £399,467

Help deepen our impact

Young Eurasian lynx in woodland.

Support our work

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