Rewilding Futures: Shaping Tomorrow's Wild

This lecture discusses how traditional nature reserves can still lead the way in creating ecologically functional and resilient landscapes. It describes how the Purbeck Heaths ‘super-NNR’ in Dorset is leading a transition in the approach to protected site conservation, by linking multiple SSSIs into a single landscape-scale reserve; finding common ground across sectors and with local communities in a vision for nature and people. Management has shifted away from conservation of target features on individual reserves towards natural process restoration at scale, creating a more complex and resilient system. Habitats are more dynamic, but in a landscape already designated for its rare wildlife, how do we know when habitat change or species decline on a particular site is OK - and when should we still intervene with conservation management? Monitoring is key to guiding this transition, from ‘species gardening’ on nature reserves to restoring ecologically functional and more resilient landscapes.