Rewilding Futures: Shaping Tomorrow's Wild

Our workshop will introduce an idea we are calling re-traditioning. Historically, regular social events bound to the farming calendar year helped to build social cohesion in communities in our rural communities. Over time as the reduction in quantity and diversity of rural employment has led to a loss of these traditional events with a subsequent erosion of social cohesion. Social events are now often organised by external provides like NGOs and done with communities not by communities and once funding or commitment runs out the event is lost. The rise of rewilding is increasing nature-based employment and local interest in wildlife, providing a new way to focus communities and bring people together. Can we use this new energy to reinvent the art of the locally led community event which bring people together, rebuilds pride in place and is sustained by the enthusiasm of local people not by the resources of an external organisation. This is the process of re-traditioning. Our workshop will explain and explore this new idea and work with participants to map out the essential ingredients of re-traditioning and how it might be done in their projects or sites. It will be of particular interest to those working with communities, empowering them to have more influence over changes to their local landscape.