The Wild View: Nature is stalling. Why 30% rewilding is the game changer Britain now needs

A systems failure

The National Security Assessment warns that ecosystem collapse could trigger a ​“cascading failure” of the systems we rely on – from food supply chains to water security. If we are serious about national resilience we must adopt 30% rewilding of land and sea as a core national strategy. We must stop seeing it as a peripheral ​‘nice-to-have’ and start treating nature as a vital investment.

The OEP’s conclusion that ​“nature recovery is at serious risk” reveals not simply a failure of delivery but also a failure of systems design. From a leadership perspective, the UK and devolved governments are trying to address ecological breakdown with fragmented, short-term interventions. The result is predictable: stalled progress, rising costs and a dangerous exposure to systemic risk.

The limits of fragmented targets

The gap between policy and reality is a national scandal. While leaders claim that Britain is protecting 30% of our land and seas for nature, the truth is far bleaker:

• The reality: Only about 6% of land in the UK is effectively managed for nature[6]. In England, that figure is just 3% and in Wales it drops to a staggering 2.4%. Scotland leads at 12.6%, yet only about 1% of the UK is actually rewilding through natural processes. At sea we ​‘protect’ 38% of our marine area on paper, yet allow bottom-trawling to bulldoze most of the seabed, destroying the carbon-storing power of our kelp forests and seagrass meadows and undermining our fish stocks. 
• The decline of nature: The UK has lost nearly half of its biodiversity since the industrial revolution. With a staggering 91%[7] of England’s native woodlands in poor ecological health, we have effectively crippled their ability to sponge up floodwaters, lock away carbon and provide a home for our struggling species. Against this backdrop, Britain’s rewilding sites are acting as emergency life-support systems as some of the few examples where whole ecosystems are rebounding[8].
• Climate vulnerability: The record-breaking rainfall of 2023 – 24 didn’t just flood fields; it exposed a nation ​‘insufficiently prepared’[9] for a changing world. We are stripped of our natural buffers, leaving communities and the economy to pay the escalating price[10] of a landscape that can no longer hold its water.
• Economic risks: The cost of inaction will have significant and profound negative impacts including on the UK economy, potentially resulting in GDP being at least 6% lower than it would have been otherwise by the 2030s[11].

These are not isolated issues. They reflect a political structure and land and marine use system optimised for short-term outputs rather than long-term resilience. By failing to meet our nature targets we are effectively subsidising the erosion of the natural national wealth on which we all depend.

Rewilding: our national ​‘life support’ infrastructure

Our land and seas are vital. They underpin food, timber and fibre production, climate resilience, nature recovery, clean air and water, energy systems and human health and wellbeing. How they are managed therefore has material implications for long-term ecological health, economic performance and social wellbeing. Yet for too long, we have overstretched these living systems.

The truth is that our current land and marine uses are no longer fit for the 21^st century. Meeting rising pressures from climate change, biodiversity loss and competing demands requires a more integrated, multi-functional approach – one that optimises land and seas for the outcomes they are best placed to deliver.

Rewilding is the deliberate, evidence-led choice to let nature take the lead. It is about restoring the vital processes — from free-flowing rivers and natural grazing to stabilising the seabed – so ecosystems can recover, adapt and function productively. This isn’t a ​‘one-size-fits-all’ solution; it is a spectrum of restoration guided by local culture and context. On land, focusing rewilding on marginal, less productive areas offers a clear path to link nature’s recovery to an equitable economic transformation. At sea, simply by banning the destruction of the seabed through dredging and trawling we can allow nature — and surrounding fisheries — to rebound with astonishing speed. Restoring saltmarsh, seagrass and kelp also delivers some of the highest carbon capture rates of any ecosystem (see below), while also supporting local small scale fishers and coastal communities.

The benefits of rewilding are measurable and increasingly well evidenced:

• Economic resilience: The ​‘nature-positive’ economy is one of the UK’s fastest-growing sectors. Every £1 spent restoring our peatlands returns £4.62 in social and economic value. For saltmarshes, that return is £2.48[12]. While we must ensure these returns are shared fairly, we need to stop seeing this as a cost and start recognising it as a high-yield national investment.
• Rapid recovery: When we step back, life rushes back in. In just 20 years of rewilding, the Knepp Estate saw a 916% surge in breeding birds and a 107% increase in butterfly species[13]. While at Wild Woodbury, In the three years since the land was acquired, over 1,900 species have been recorded — an uplift of 600 species[14].
• Climate resilience: Nature-based flood defenses – through beaver reintroductions and wetland restoration – are a vital safeguard for our towns and villages. Every £1 invested saves the taxpayer and insurers between £5 and £10 in avoided damages and infrastructure repairs[15].
• Marine productivity: Seagrass meadows can store carbon at rates up to 35 times faster than tropical forests, while providing ​‘nursery grounds’ that secure a positive ​‘spillover’ effect in surrounding fisheries[16].

Rewilding, when strategically deployed, is not a retreat from productivity. It is an investment in natural national infrastructure that underpins food systems, climate resilience and our long-term economic stability.

A platform for green growth

Rewilding also creates the conditions for economic renewal. It supports diverse new employment opportunities across habitat restoration, monitoring, sustainable land and marine management, eco-tourism, coastal economies and emerging nature markets. Rewilding sites across Scotland have shown a 412% increase[17] in full-time equivalent jobs for example, and in England and Wales an increase of 93%[18]. These include existing jobs as stock managers, stalkers and foresters but also jobs in nature-based enterprises, sustainable food production, nature tourism, education and professional ecology.

UK businesses are increasingly investing in nature-based solutions to build their resilience, and innovations to reduce their impacts on nature. In 2024, UK-based ​‘nature-tech’ and businesses developing technologies or systems to protect/​restore nature raised £2.8 billion in private capital[19]. Scaling up this investment could be a powerful engine for technological innovation and green growth. A clear, credible commitment to 30% rewilding by the UK and devolved governments would provide the long-term policy certainty needed to align public funding, private investment and land-use planning – enabling nature recovery to scale.

From managed decline to restoration

Public support for this courageous shift is overwhelming: 81% of UK adults support rewilding[20]. But public consent is not enough. What’s needed now is leadership – the willingness to treat nature recovery on land and at sea as essential national ​‘infrastructure’, rather than an environmental add-on. 

A 30% rewilding target is not radical — it is a proportionate, practical response to a national security threat. It offers a coherent path to a Britain that works for both people and nature. 

The question is no longer whether we can afford to rewild 30% of our land and sea. The real question is: Can we afford not to?