Rewilding Futures: Shaping Tomorrow's Wild: Full Schedule

10:30 GMT

Creating an Investable Rewilding Project in Scotland FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:00 GMT

Rewilding projects often struggle to secure adequate, long-term funding due to mismatched public schemes, sporadic philanthropy, and restrictive carbon markets. To address the challenge, CreditNature partnered with the Scottish Government to unlock investment in functional and dynamic ecosystems. This session looks at Drumadoon, a flagship landscape on the Isle of Arran, who are transforming coastal farmland into a mosaic with temperate rainforest, wetlands and natural grazing at the heart. Drumadoon is utilising a framework of metrics, ‘NARIA’, that translates recovering natural processes into units. These have been deployed to baseline, plan and monitor their efforts and, importantly, attract investment. Attendees will hear about the step-by-step process, from early concepts to engaging corporates, for actionable insights on how to develop investment-ready projects. We’ll share a pragmatic vision for a new high-integrity nature market to bridge to funding gap and scale rewilding.

Speakers

Dan Bass

Rewilding Services Lead, CreditNature

Dan works with landowners and communities to prepare investable nature restoration projects. In developing Ecosulis’ Rewilding Advisory Service and CreditNature’s Ecosystem Management Rating, Dan empowers landholders to transition to nature-based rural businesses that meet their... Read More →

Sophy Jones

Nature Fintech Developer, CreditNature

Sophy combines ecological expertise with nature technology and financial innovation, harnessing technology to develop scalable solutions that advance rewilding and reverse nature’s decline.

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:00 GMT
Room 3 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

10:30 GMT

Restoring Golden Eagles to Southern Scotland; Northern England the next challenge. FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:00 GMT

Room 1

The South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project (SSGEP) launched in 2017 has successfully increased the population of golden eagles from 6 to around 50 birds; more than the region has seen in over 300 years. In just 6 years, 12 new territories have established and first signs of breeding activity recorded. Through established translocation protocols collecting single chicks from nests of twins alongside the novel subadult translocation methodology the southern Scottish Population is thriving. Stakeholder and community engagement has played a vital role is the success of the project. Our next goal is to support the return of golden eagles to Northern England.

Speakers

Cat Barlow

Chief Executive, Restoring Upland Nature (RUN) SCIO

Cat is CEO of the newly formed charity Restoring Upland Nature (RUN). and lead for South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project. Cat had BSc in Biological Sciences from University of Leeds and a PhD in recreation Ecology from the University of Warwick. Cat has 25 years of experience working... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:00 GMT
Room 1 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

10:30 GMT

Scalable models of Rewilding FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:00 GMT

Room 2

How do we build a wilder future for Europe with more space for natural processes like forest regeneration, free flowing rivers, herbivory and carnivory to impact ecosystems, where people and nature can thrive? In Rewilding Europe, we focus on maximizing our impact by demonstrating rewilding across 13 countries and catalyzing further action at landscape scale throughout Europe. By integrating ecological restoration, new nature-based economies and benefits for people and innovative finance mechanisms, rewilding models offer scalable and replicable solutions that sustain ecological impact while incentivizing large-scale adoption. This session will present a set of rewilding models implemented on the ground with rewilding practitioners across a wealth of landscapes. From innovative approaches to coexistence, such as wildlife-smart communities in Central Appennines in Italy, to rewilding hunting concessions in the Velebit Mountains of Croatia, or the recovery of natural grazing dynamics through the comeback of large herbivores in the Iberian Highlands and Greater Coa Valley in Spain and Portugal, we will showcase the success of these models in restoring wilder nature and delivering long-term benefits for ecosystems and local communities.

Speakers

Carolina Soto-Navarro

Head of Wilder Nature, Stichting Rewilding Europe

Carolina is a rewilding practitioner with huge experience having designed, led, and raised funds for public and private conservation initiatives across the world, from South-East Asia to Central America, Africa and Europe for the last 15 years. Carolina’s passion for wildlife and... Read More →

Sophie Monsarrat

Rewilding Manager, Stichting Rewilding Europe

Sophie Monsarrat is Rewilding Landscapes Manager at Rewilding Europe. With a strong research background on large terrestrial mammal ecology in South African and European landscapes, she now oversees Rewilding Europe's wildlife comeback and natural grazing programs and acts as focal... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:00 GMT
Room 2 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

10:30 GMT

Rewilding The American West: Cores, Carnivores, Corridors And Wild Horses. LIMITED

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:30 GMT

Babbage Lecture Theatre

From rewilding policy, legislation, advocacy, media awareness and science Rewilding America Now is moving the needle in creating rewilding landscapes and education in the US. Never been done before and scientifically supported we reintroduce Americas wild horses as a keystone species on public range lands and – in cooperation with federal agencies - create landscape scale rewilding habitats. Our flagship project is a combination of private land and over 70k+ acres of public grazing lands connecting Yellowstone National Park and the Central Idaho Wilderness Area. Creating a 130 + mile wildlife corridor that effectively opens up wildlife migration routes from Yellowstone to the Idaho Rockies saving tens of thousands of large herbivores and predators threatened by climatechange and habitat fragmentation. Working with native communities and traditional ecological knowledge to farmers and rotational grazing practices with wild horses enhancing more sustainable and profitable agricultural models , Rewilding America Now is doing it all. Meet The team at Rewilding America Now that is spearheading the movement to rewild in the United States.

Speakers

Manda Kalimian

President/ Founder, Rewilding America Now

Manda Kalimian is the Founder and president of Rewilding America Now, which for 15 years has worked to promote rewilding America’s lands supporting environmental and climate sustainability. She is the first ever Federal lands permitee of 70,000 acres working to create rewilding... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:30 GMT
Babbage Lecture Theatre The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

10:30 GMT

Serotypes in the City: Can we rewild urban microbiomes for better human health? FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:30 GMT

Room 8 & 9

Our increasingly urbanized world is bad for our health, with congestion, higher crime rates, pollution, increased levels of inequality and social exclusion commonplace. We also know that lower exposure to Nature leads to reduced mental and physical health – but recent evidence suggest another, perhaps more primordial, connection. Emerging evidence suggests that reduced contact with diverse microbial communities in urban environments may contribute to immune dysfunction and related disease. Further studies are starting to suggest that rewilding degraded ecosystems could potentially restore at least some microbial diversity, possibly reversing these effects. This forward-looking activity aligns with the Health and Wellbeing theme and explores this hypothesis – it includes three parts: a presentation summarizing the link between microbial diversity loss and health, a discussion inviting examples of rewilding's effectiveness, and a group activity. Participants will brainstorm strategies to implement urban rewilding for health, addressing challenges like funding, policy integration, and measuring success.

Speakers

Karen Blackport

CEO, Bright Green Nature

Dr Karen Blackport is an ecosystem health scientist, an active rewilder and ex biotech and pharmaceutical executive, having worked in cancer and rare disease for over twenty years. In 2022 Karen founded Bright Green Nature, a Scottish Borders based charity, which seeks to work with... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:30 GMT
Room 8 & 9 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

10:30 GMT

To Own and Control: The Future of Land Governance Structures in Scotland and Beyond FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:30 GMT

Room 7

Scotland faces serious ecological and sociological challenges. It has one of the most depleted terrestrial landscapes, and concurrently some of the highest landownership inequality, in the world. Rewilding, meanwhile, faces serious methodological challenges: how can landscape-scale projects be strategically planned, overcoming present parcellisation, and how can projects be safeguarded in the long-term, overcoming the whims landowners may have at any one time? Other big unanswered questions predominate too, notably how non-human voices can be integrated into the structures we use to decide what to do, or what not to do, with the land and seas we inhabit. All of these questions — and more — will be explored in this interactive workshop. After a contextualising discussion, participants will devise their own solutions in small groups. They will receive character cards, roleplaying different stakeholders —whether private landowners, local community groups, or the national government — while tapping into Scotland’s unique legislative provisions, financing schemes, and landownership culture. Solutions will then be pitched to other groups at the end of the workshop.

Speakers

Ted Theisinger

MLitt Environmental History

Ted Theisinger is a recent graduate of the University of St. Andrews, where he completed an MLitt in Environmental History. Prior to this he received a BA in History at UCL. His specialism lies in North American indigenous environmental histories: with research focussed on the change... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:30 GMT
Room 7 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

10:30 GMT

Transforming human-nature relationships through rewilding? FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:30 GMT

Room 4

This interactive dialogue session explores the opportunities and challenges of transforming human-nature relationships through rewilding. The session begins with a presentation by the organizer, summarising a recent review of 89 European rewilding projects, their objectives, practices, and the roles assigned to people at rewilding sites. This will be followed by an interactive dialogue using a 'fishbowl conversation' format to address the following questions: 1) Which types of human-nature interactions can bring about transformative change in human-nature relationships? 2) Is rewilding, as practiced to date, able to realize this transformative power, and what needs to change? 3) Are there synergies and trade-offs with other rewilding objectives?

Speakers

Brenda Maria Zoderer

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I am researcher and lecturer in conservation science. My research interests focus on the multifaceted relationships between people and nature, with particular attention to issues of environmental and social justice in nature conservation, human-nature interactions, and the socio-cultural... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:30 - 11:30 GMT
Room 4 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

11:00 GMT

Lighting the Dark: Glow-worms as local wilding champions FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:00 - 11:30 GMT

Room 2

Glow-worms are a spectacular but localised insect in Britain, with recent evidence of a decline in numbers. As a species that have inspired culture and stories for millenia, restoring them to former and new sites may not only help recover populations but enhance local connections to nature spaces. Pete will speak on his experience working with the species and how they can be champions of wilding at the local scale.

Speakers

Pete Cooper

Species Ecologist, Restored Land Limited

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:00 - 11:30 GMT
Room 2 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

11:00 GMT

Normalising Beavers’ or "Building a Dam Good Future: Beavers as Drivers of Landscape Change in Britain FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:00 - 11:30 GMT

Room 3

The reintroduction of beavers to Britain marks a pivotal moment in conservation, offering a rare opportunity to restore a lost mammal along with natural processes and reshape ecosystems. As nature’s engineers, beavers create wetlands, slow water flow, and increase biodiversity, driving profound landscape changes that benefit both wildlife and human communities. However, this vision of ecological restoration is contingent only if we realise them in significant numbers rather than scattered projects.

While physical mitigation techniques—such as flow devices and fencing—can address direct conflicts with human interests, the real challenge lies in overcoming social and cultural barriers to wider coexistence. Beavers have been absent from the British landscape for centuries, and their return requires not just technical solutions but also a cultural shift and wider social tolerance. Normalising their presence and activities, particularly within the conservation sector, is essential for fostering understanding and acceptance.

This talk will explore the ecological benefits of beaver-driven landscape transformation, examine the roots of resistance to their reintroduction, and propose strategies to build widespread support. By addressing societal concerns and embracing beavers as a vital part of our ecosystems, we could pave the way for a resilient, biodiverse future in Britain.

Speakers

Roisin Cambell-Palmer

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:00 - 11:30 GMT
Room 3 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

11:00 GMT

The place for people in rewilding FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:00 - 11:30 GMT

Room 1

Rewilding is often seen as a transformative solution to the biodiversity crisis, yet it remains contentious, particularly when it comes to defining people's role in the process of rewilding. To explore this, we identified three ways people engage with nature in rewilding contexts: human–nature dichotomy, human–nature compromise, and human–nature mutualism. Through 51 interviews with stakeholders from two British rewilding projects, we examined how people interact with rewilding projects on the ground. The findings reveal that while these categories broadly capture people’s relationships with nature, individuals often hold multiple, sometimes conflicting perspectives. This complexity challenges traditional views of human roles in rewilding. Our research suggests that no single approach to human involvement is universally applicable in rewilding. Instead, embracing a diversity of human–nature interactions can foster more inclusive, adaptive practices that meet both human and ecological needs, supporting the growth of the global rewilding movement.

Speakers

Joe Glentworth

Lecturer in Environmental Management, Sheffield Hallam University

Dr. Joe Glentworth is a lecturer and researcher in Environmental Management and Environmental Science at Sheffield Hallam University. He holds a PhD from the University of Manchester, where he investigated the social and cultural dimensions of upland rewilding. His research employs... Read More →

Anna Gilchrist

Senior Lecturer in Environmental M'g'mnt & Ecology, University of Manchester

Dr. Anna Gilchrist is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management and Ecology at the University of Manchester, with a PhD in climate change and species range expansion. Her research focuses on the socio-ecological dynamics of landscape changes, human-nature interactions, and their... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:00 - 11:30 GMT
Room 1 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

11:30 GMT

Dialling up the wild – achieving 30% rewilding in Britain LIMITED

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:30 - 12:00 GMT

Babbage Lecture Theatre

UK Government has committed to national and international targets to achieve 30% nature recovery by 2030. At Rewilding Britian, we believe that this target should be for at least 30% in rewilding by 2030 – a huge increase from the 1% currently rewilding across Britain. So, how can we achieve such a step change in ambition? We will present our roadmap for achieving this huge change in approach to nature restoration. This will include addressing key questions such as: Do we have the space for 30% rewilding in Britain? How can we involve communities and young people? How do we remove the perceived risk from species reintroductions. How can we advocate for embracing change and dynamic ecosystems in such an entrenched system. We will also showcase some of the incredible rewilding projects already happening across Britain and how this is improving our knowledge of what a rewilded Britain may look like.

Speakers

Sara King

Rewilding Researcher, Rewilding Britain

Sara is Rewilding Manager at Rewilding Britain, and works with landowners and land managers who are rewilding or looking to start their rewilding journey. Sara is an ecologist by background and joined the charity in 2020. She established and continues to manage the Rewilding Network... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:30 - 12:00 GMT
Babbage Lecture Theatre The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

11:30 GMT

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:30 - 12:30 GMT

Room 4

Gareth will lead a presentation and workshop exploring novel approaches to re-wilding thinking adopted by the Wild Ennerdale Partnership. The presentation will cover the concept of future natural ecology, the importance of recognizing “ghosts” in the landscape, and the challenges these approaches present. Gareth will discuss the benefits of being opportunistic and process-led in natural management, and the struggles of most NVC habitats, which often lack dynamism due to being dominated by one or two processes. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss the shared concepts, their usefulness, and other re-wilding ideas that can help managers let nature become wilder richer and more colourful.

Speakers

Gareth Browning

Area Forester, Wild Ennerdale/Forestry England

Gareth is a forester with Forestry England in the English Lake District. He looks after 4700 ha of forest, mountain, lake and farmland including Ennerdale and Whinlatter. He is a founding member of Wild Ennerdale, one of England's longest running re-wilding partnerships. He is also... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:30 - 12:30 GMT
Room 4 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

11:30 GMT

How to measure how well your rewilding project is working for biodiversity FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:30 - 12:30 GMT

Room 8 & 9

This workshop, to be facilitated by David Noble, Adham Ashton-Butt and Gavin Siriwardena of BTO, together with Sahran Higgins of Rewilding Britain, will focus on approaches to assessing the success of rewilding projects from a biodiversity perspective, whether specific targets or open-ended. To ensure funding, to promote rewilding elsewhere and for concrete evidence to engage wider audiences, robust monitoring data is critical. This requires the use of scientifically sound and repeatable protocols on-site, with relevant counterfactuals. Drawing on UK and European examples, the workshop will cover the pros and cons of (i) bespoke surveys using citizen science, or professionals, (ii) making use of existing monitoring data, and (iii) emerging technologies including passive acoustic monitoring. Talks on the strengths and weaknesses of approaches, scientific, logistical, and dependencies (volunteer capacity, broader data availability and taxa) will be followed by a Q&A. We will invite contributions of real-world monitoring targets (what do we need to know?) and suggestions for monitoring approaches (what works best?). The output will be a guidance document for monitoring.

Speakers

David Noble

Membership Secretary, Cambridge Conservation Forum

David Noble has been interested in nature, particularly birds, since a child. After a BSc I spent 8 years as a free-lance ecologist working on seabirds in arctic Canada, and the impact of contaminants on wildlife. After completing degrees on the population ecology of Brunnich’s... Read More →

Gavin Siriwardena

Head of Terrestrial Ecology, British Trust for Ornithology

Sahran Higgins

Rewilding Manager, Rewilding Britain

Adham Ashton-Butt

Senior Research Ecologist, British Trust for Ornithology

Monitoring rewilding Jan 2025 G Siriwardena pptx

Rewilding2025 Day2 Monitoring Noble intro pptx

Saturday January 18, 2025 11:30 - 12:30 GMT
Room 8 & 9 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

12:00 GMT

Chat Moss: Historical Ecology and Peatland Restoration LIMITED

Saturday January 18, 2025 12:00 - 12:30 GMT

Room 1

Three hundred years ago Chat Moss was impenetrable wilderness, a lowland raised bog of over 36 square kilometres, situated between Liverpool and Manchester at the epicentre of the Industrial Revolution. From historical maps, books and biological recordings it is possible to trace the origins of the ecosystem back to the late Holocene and chart the impact of the past 200 years of human activity, resulting in complete habitat destruction and loss of most wetland flora and fauna. Peatland restoration has been undertaken on local nature reserves since the 1980s. More resources and land have been directed at peatland restoration in recent years, driven by the imperative to preserve carbon stored in the peat and resume carbon sequestration. This process has involved multiple translocations of plant species, some now nationally scarce. The reintroduction of the large heath butterfly in 2020 was one of the major milestones in the project.

Speakers

Andrew Osborne

PhD student; Conservation volunteer, Manchester Metropolitan University; Lancashire Wildlife Trust

I am a long-term volunteer with Lancashire Wildlife Trust and a research student at Manchester Metropolitan University. I have been involved with peatland restoration on Chat Moss for the past eight years, working mainly on landscape restoration and plant species reintroductions on... Read More →

Graphical Abstract; landscape and extinctions jpg

Graphical Abstract; land area and key dates jpg

Saturday January 18, 2025 12:00 - 12:30 GMT
Room 1 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

12:00 GMT

Naturally Profitable: Restoring Nature to Farms & Estates LIMITED

Saturday January 18, 2025 12:00 - 12:30 GMT

Babbage Lecture Theatre

In this talk, Benedict, founder and director of Restore, talks through how nature restoration is now scaling across the UK. He charts the journey the UK is going on, from being one of the most nature depleted countries on Earth, to rapidly restoring large areas of land – as nature restoration becomes more profitable than extractive or intensive farming. Sharing first hand insights from rewilding estates like Castle Howard, creating a new ‘plain’ in Wiltshire and reintroducing beavers to farms, Benedict gives a unique insight into the workings of a nature restoration business – and how inspirational farmers and landowners are coming together to scale nature’s recovery. As a pragmatist, Benedict explains how finance is a critical part of nature’s recovery – and diversification is the way farming will prosper into the future. And how, without restoring nature, all farms, and farming, will ultimately fail.

Speakers

Benedict Macdonald

CEO, Restore

Benedict Macdonald is a naturalist, conservationist, writer and producer. He has worked on series including Netflix's Emmy-award-winning series, Our Planet. Benedict’s first book, Rebirding, highlighted the need for mass-scale nature restoration across the UK. It was the winner... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 12:00 - 12:30 GMT
Babbage Lecture Theatre The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

12:00 GMT

Removing the legal barriers: using large herbivores in ecological restoration LIMITED

Saturday January 18, 2025 12:00 - 12:30 GMT

Room 3

Large herbivores play a key role in ecosystems. However, rewilding projects in mainland Europe and the UK who want to restore large herbivores to natural landscapes face a legal system designed for traditional livestock. The Lifescape Project is working with projects and other rewilding organisations to tackle this problem. This presentation will: 1. Consider how large herbivores can be a key component of rewilding projects with a significant ecological impact; 2. Provide an overview of the legal treatment of large herbivores in rewilding in the UK and Europe (including legal regulation relating to their management, welfare, health, disease risk etc); 3. Discuss specific legal barriers to using large herbivores in rewilding (including identification rules, rules on collection of fallen stock, animal welfare rules/guidance and disease testing rules); and 4. Look at opportunities for innovation in overcoming barriers and update on Lifescape’s aspiration for a 'kept wild' legal category.

Speakers

Katherine Blatchford

Speakers

Amy Duthie

Head of Upscaling, Rewilding Europe

Amy Duthie works for Rewilding Europe as Head of Upscaling where she leads efforts to scale up rewilding, through joining forces with those who influence large areas of land; through building knowledge and capacity for rewilding, and by creating a more enabling policy and legal environment... Read More →

Giulia Testa

Upscaling Manager - Enabling Environment, Rewilding Europe

Saturday January 18, 2025 13:30 - 14:30 GMT
Room 8 & 9 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

13:30 GMT

Re-Traditioning: re-thinking community events for the 21st century FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 13:30 - 14:30 GMT

Room 4

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.

Speakers

Martin Varley

Programme Manager, Cumbria Connect

Martin Varley is conservation professional with over 20-years’ experience of strategic conservation leadership and development with expertise land acquisition and management, species reintroduction and recovery, conservation financing, science, natural capital, climate mitigation... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 13:30 - 14:30 GMT
Room 4 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

13:30 GMT

Species Conservation Translocations challenges and opportunities FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 13:30 - 15:00 GMT

Room 7

The purpose of the session is to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by conservation translocations. This will build on recent research on the subject, and bring in experiences from other national, and international rewilding/ translocation projects. These may include biological, ecological, socio-political, organisational and regulatory components. The desired outcomes are: - For participants to share views on challenges and opportunities, and think about the impact on their objectives, such as reducing extinction risk for species, or restoring ecosystem functions. - To learn from the experiences of participants to understand how these challenges and opportunities influence translocation success, so that we can identify how to enable better conservation translocations in the future.

Speakers

Delphine Pouget

Principal Officer Species reintroduction, Natural England

Delphine Pouget is Principal Adviser in Natural England’s Species Recovery and Reintroduction Team. Delphine provides strategic leadership for species conservation translocation in England, coordinating strategic vision and priorities across Natural England. She currently has the... Read More →

Molly Dadswell

Higher Officer, Natural England

Jeremy Sabel

Senior Officer Species Reintroductions, Natural England

I studied Biology and Spanish at the University of Sussex and the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, then taught English in Colombia for a year before studying an MSc in Biodiversity and Conservation at the University of Leeds and then working with Frontier in Madagascar for a year conducting... Read More →

Gemma Harding

Senior Officer Species Reintroductions, Natural England

Gemma is a Senior Officer in the Species Recovery and Reintroduction team at Natural England, where she provides support and advice in relation to species translocation projects. Gemma has a research background in conservation reintroductions and species action planning, with a focus... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 13:30 - 15:00 GMT
Room 7 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

14:00 GMT

Forests before humans: historical baselines of European vegetation FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:00 - 14:30 GMT

Room 3

Large herbivores have historically shaped vegetation by maintaining open areas and disturbing woody habitats. However, the large herbivores alive today represent only a fraction of those present before modern humans. The extinction of many species over the past 50,000 years, including megaherbivores (>1000 kg) before the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, likely altered vegetation structure and composition. In this session, Dr Elena Pearce will present her research into how the loss of megafauna affected Europe’s temperate forests. Using the latest vegetation reconstruction approach, she analysed pollen records from the Last Interglacial (129,000–116,000 BP), before widespread megafauna declines and human-driven landscape changes. Her findings reveal open vegetation and light woodland exceeded 50% cover, with marked spatial variation driven more by disturbance regimes—likely linked to megafauna—than climate. These results challenge the view of dense, closed-canopy temperate forests, highlighting the role of megafauna in maintaining diverse, open ecosystems and supporting Europe’s historical biodiversity.

Speakers

Elena Pearce

Postdoctoral Researcher, Aarhus University

Dr Elena Pearce is an ecologist and postdoctoral researcher specialising in rewilding and landscape recovery. Her research is focused on reconstructing past ecological reference conditions and understanding the processes that promote complex, biodiverse ecosystems. Passionate about... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:00 - 14:30 GMT
Room 3 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

14:00 GMT

Mind the Gap: The Urban Wildlife Journey- Always the Obvious Always the great Surprise. FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:00 - 14:30 GMT

Room 1

Traditional conservation has often overlooked the urban wildlife legacy of creative ecology. However, some of the UK’s most successful nature recovery have happened in unexpected places. This shift changed the definition of "derelict land" to include post-industrial nature. The work of Landlife and the National Wildflower Centre (now homed at the Eden Project) dates back to 1975. Over the years, colleagues like John Little, Peter Leeson, Polly Moseley and Fergus Garrett, have shared a parallel evolution of thought, from green roofs and estate management to new approaches to tree planting and in cultural narratives and in world class gardens. Creative conservation is about care, community, and land ethics. Aldo Leopold, a pioneer of ecological restoration, extolled a community land ethic in the 1930s. Today, we face a need for new commons—urban and rural—a journey worth sharing.

Speakers

Richard Scott

Technical Director (National Wildflower Centre), Eden Proejct

Richard has 35 years experience in creative conservation, wildflower seed production, and innovative landscape delivery and community engagement. He spent 25 years with the urban ecology charity Landlife, delivering projects such as the National Wildflower Centre in Liverpool (2000... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:00 - 14:30 GMT
Room 1 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

14:00 GMT

Rewilding Power! Three Land Reforms To Make The Rewilding Revolution Fast And Fair FILLING

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:00 - 14:30 GMT

Room 2

Britain is one of the most ecologically depleted countries on the planet and one of the most unequally owned: an astonishing 50% of England is owned by less than 1% of its population. The rapidly growing grassroots movement Wild Card is here to change this.

Wild Card campaigns for the UK's biggest institutional landowners - such as the Church of England, the royal estates and the Oxbridge Colleges - to urgently begin rewilding their lands in response to the climate emergency. Meanwhile it pressures government to enact land reforms that would democratise land ownership and open up rewilding to all. Through groundbreaking campaigns such as Rewild the Church, which secured cross-sector support from figures like Michael Gove, Stephen Fry and Caroline Lucas, Wild Card has mobilised over 275,000 people into action for rewilding holding protests, talks and events across the country.

In this provocative talk, Wild Card co-founder Joel Scott-Halkes lifts the curtain on the powerful ancient landholders of Britain, presenting eye opening data on the scale of their holdings and the state of their land before proposing three radical but pragmatic land reforms that could make Britain wilder and fairer.

Speakers

Joel Scott-Halkes

Co-founder, Wild Card

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:00 - 14:30 GMT
Room 2 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

14:00 GMT

Scaling Rewilding with AI LIMITED

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:00 - 14:30 GMT

Babbage Lecture Theatre

Ella will lead a panel discussion exploring how cutting-edge advancements in AI technology can significantly accelerate and enhance global rewilding efforts. We will focus on AI-driven data analysis as a transformative tool for improving monitoring, forecasting, and decision-making in rewilding and restoration projects. The panel will feature leading experts from diverse fields, such as bioacoustics for species detection, remote sensing, and machine learning-based pattern recognition, all of whom are utilising AI in innovative ways to drive impactful environmental work. Each panellist will share real-world applications of AI in their projects, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges that come with harnessing these technologies. As facilitators, Ecosulis will contribute our own experiences in integrating AI into nature recovery projects, offering insights into ongoing initiatives and sharing our ambitions for leveraging AI further to scale rewilding efforts.

Speakers

Sophy Jones

Nature Fintech Developer, CreditNature

Sophy combines ecological expertise with nature technology and financial innovation, harnessing technology to develop scalable solutions that advance rewilding and reverse nature’s decline.

Cat Scutts

Business Development Manager, Wilder Sensing

A keen outdoor enthusiast and problem solver, Cat enjoys working with Ecologists, Charities, and NGOs in the conservation sector to demystify the rapidly developing, scalable, and auditable field of AI & Bioacoustic monitoring.

Hugh Sturrock

Loamin

Ella Milne

Ecosystem Analyst, Ecosulis

Ella is a tech-focussed and data-driven rewilder dedicated to accelerating and scaling nature recovery through innovative solutions and cutting-edge technologies.

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:00 - 14:30 GMT
Babbage Lecture Theatre The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

14:30 GMT

Relicts of the Holocene: Rewilding Britain's Prehistoric Pond Turtle, and Other Fascinating and Forgotten Species LIMITED

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:00 GMT

Babbage Lecture Theatre

In this lecture, Harvey Tweats of Celtic Rewilding, will share the trials and tribulations of reintroducing some of Britain's most threatened wildlife. Principally, Harvey will talk about how the past can inform the species we could reintroduce and the landscapes we can rewild. From prehistoric pond terrapins to the ornate white stork, Harvey’s work has been varied. He delves into the broader restoration of ancient ecosystems, uncovering the stories of forgotten wildlife and the cutting-edge science driving their return. One key question he poses is how will climate change effect our ability to rewild, and the choice of species to reintroduce? Join him for a thought-provoking exploration of Britain’s lost creatures and the future of rewilding the UK.

Speakers

Harvey Tweats

Direcor, Celtic Rewilding Ltd

Harvey Tweats is the director of Celtic Rewilding, a pioneering conservation organisation initially focused on restoring Britain’s lost amphibians and reptiles, although now the company has a much broader reach. With a deep passion for wildlife conservation, Harvey has dedicated... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:00 GMT
Babbage Lecture Theatre The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

14:30 GMT

Using Novel Legal Mechanisms to Secure Land for Rewilding: Lessons from across UK and Europe FILLING

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:00 GMT

Room 3

As private owners rewild land and markets for biodiversity and ecosystem services are introduced, novel (and repurposed old) legal mechanisms are becoming increasingly important to ensure long-term biodiversity benefits. This presentation will: 1. Consider the increasing need to secure rewilded land for the long term and how legal mechanisms are helping/hindering to achieve this; 2. Provide case studies of how legal mechanisms are being used with reference to specific examples from Italy, Portugal and the UK; 3. Consider how European jurisdictions can learn from each other to address legal barriers and ensure private land can be protected for rewilding for future generations; and 4. Introduce innovative legal thinking able to impact how landowners and practitioners can work together to secure land for rewilding: a. The case of LS as responsible body b. The opportunities that the NRL offers to secure land for rewilding.

Speakers

Catarina Prata

Rewilding Lawyer, The Lifescape Project

Katherine Blatchford

Rewilding Lawyer, The Lifescape Project

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:00 GMT
Room 3 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

14:30 GMT

Financing Rewilding in the Global South: Learnings from a rural Rwanda case study FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:30 GMT

Room 4

This workshop explores the unique challenges and opportunities of rewilding in the Global South, where livelihoods often depend directly on natural resources, and governance systems may be less formalised. Drawing on a pilot Payment for Ecosystem Services project in Eastern Rwanda by The Lifescape Project and Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association, we’ll examine how finance from global nature markets can restore ecosystems while improving local land access and nature-based revenue opportunities. Through interactive discussions, we’ll address key questions, including: • How can rewilding principles be applied to diverse Global South contexts (through, for example, understanding neo-colonial dynamics and risks) • How can nature finance deliver equitable benefits and avoid reinforcing power and wealth imbalances? • How can we ensure rewilding efforts are genuinely participatory, sensitive to local cultures, and improve livelihoods? In an interactive workshop format, participants will be invited to critique and provide feedback on various nature-finance approaches to participatory governance, land access equity, and socially responsible project design.

Speakers

Amelia Holmes

Rewilding Economist, The Lifescape Project

Amelia Holmes is a Rewilding Economist with the Lifescape Project, where she applies economic tools to demonstrate how rewilding and nature more generally are foundational to our economies. Her work focuses on natural capital, payments for ecosystem services, and transformative systems-change... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:30 GMT
Room 4 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

14:30 GMT

Forest Wilding: putting the wild back into the Nation's Forests FILLING

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:30 GMT

Room 2

Bev Nichols and Rachel Gardner will set out Forestry England’s ambitions to push nature recovery at pace and scale, restoring natural processes to more than 8000 ha of the nation’s forests and recovering missing species. Uniquely placed as the country’s largest land manager, Forestry England’s Forest Wilding Programme builds on the government’s 25 year Environment Plan goals and drives forward their Growing the Future and Biodiversity Plan. This is a journey of innovation – led by nature and supported through reinstating, accelerating and replicating natural processes and species reintroduction. The vision is holistic: fully-functioning forest ecosystems, where sustainable timber production sits hand-in-hand with the most valuable places for wildlife to thrive and expand in England, and where there is inherent resilience to emerging threats such as disease and climate change. These ambitions cannot be met alone, with partnerships key to successful delivery in the nation’s forests and beyond.

Speakers

Rachel Gardner

Species Recovery Manager, Forestry England

With a multi-disciplinary background in physical geography and conservation biology, Rachel has a firm grounding in the biotic and abiotic processes shaping our landscapes. Conservation translocations were at the heart of Rachel’s postgraduate studies with Marwell Wildlife and University... Read More →

Bev Nichols

Forest Wilding Programme Manager, Forestry England

Growing up around Epping Forest, large, nature-rich landscapes were part of Bev’s ecological DNA. Following a grounding at Nature Conservancy Council and English Nature, his role with Norfolk Wildlife Trust sparked a passion for evidence-based nature conservation. In Natural England... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:30 GMT
Room 2 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

14:30 GMT

Rewilding Guidelines Roundtable FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:30 GMT

Room 8 & 9

A roundtable session to discuss the detail of the IUCN Rewilding Guidelines under development. The session leaders will introduce the previous work of the RTG including developing a unifying global definition of rewilding and a set of ten guiding principles, as outlined in Carver et al. (2021). The interactive element of the roundtable will explore a number of key rewilding topics and questions, including: differences and commonalities between rewilding and ecological restoration, the role of rewilding in carbon cycles and mitigating climate change effects, reducing biodiversity loss and ‘bending the curve’, reinstating species and trophic interactions. The roundtable will also consider issues of intrinsic value of wild nature and the need for a paradigm shift in human relationships with nature and natural processes. The participants will have the opportunity to participate as a standing panel of experts and continue to input into the guidelines process.

Speakers

Steve Carver

Professor of Rewilding and Wilderness Science, Wildland Research Institute

Dr Carver is Professor of Rewilding and Wilderness Science in the School of Geography, University of Leeds and is co-chair of the IUCN CEM Rewilding Thematic Group. He works on spatial modelling of wilderness and opportunities for rewilding. He is Director of the Wildland Research... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:30 GMT
Room 8 & 9 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

14:30 GMT

Rewilding with People: Restoring Nature and Ourselves FULL

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:30 GMT

Room 1

What if rewilding centred around involving people and inviting them back onto the land? What if we saw the public as ecosystem engineers, essential for the health of wild and urban spaces? This workshop explores how people can actively participate in and benefit from rewilding, highlighting the concept that it’s not just about restoring ecosystems but also reconnecting people with nature. We’ll share examples of community-led efforts and discuss how people can be "rewilders" — agents of change through sustainable practices, conservation, and mindful land use. Key themes include: • The role of communities in rewilding projects. • Cultural and social connections to nature. • Practical ways to rewild everyday surroundings. • The link between human well-being and healthy, wild landscapes. Participants will engage in discussions, share ideas, and explore how rewilding can be a holistic movement where both nature and people flourish.

Speakers

Dylan Walker

Founder, Wilderlife

Dylan Walker is an ecologist and start-up entrepreneur specialising in building partnerships for impactful nature conservation. An advocate for rewilding, with experience as a terrestrial and marine scientist, Dylan runs community rewilding workshops, develops wildlife networks, organises... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 14:30 - 15:30 GMT
Room 1 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Workshop

15:00 GMT

Rewilding at sea – How to Embed this Approach Nationally Through Community Led Action LIMITED

Saturday January 18, 2025 15:00 - 15:30 GMT

Babbage Lecture Theatre

Rewilding has largely been a concept used in a terrestrial context to date. Yet, rewilding principles not only apply to our seas, they enable a new approach that embraces the interconnectivity and dynamic nature of this environment. At Rewilding Britain, we have been working with pioneering community led projects delivering marine rewilding on the ground to scale up and mainstream this approach.

What we have identified is that as an island nation, the rewilding of our seas will need to be community driven, and the decision making embracing this bottom-up approach. Diving into a few of these projects, we will showcase the diversity of approaches taken, and the incredible results already seen. Support from the conservation sector and decision makers remains critical. We will discuss how to enable this approach to spread along our coast, removing the key policy barriers and expand this vision offshore where community led action is increasingly complex.

Speakers

Jacques Villemot

Rewilding Britain, Rewilding Britain

I am coordinating the delivery of Rewilding Britain’s marine work, working with others in the sector to mainstream rewilding into marine policy and practice. I also supports the development of the Rewilding Network, helping to upscale marine rewilding across Britain.

Saturday January 18, 2025 15:00 - 15:30 GMT
Babbage Lecture Theatre The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk

15:00 GMT

The Nonsuch Island success story: lessons learned through 60+ years of rewilding LIMITED

Saturday January 18, 2025 15:00 - 15:30 GMT

Room 3

Bermuda is an archipelago of over 100 islets that faces significant threats to its biodiversity due to human activity and environmental changes. Among these islands, Nonsuch Island stands out as a cornerstone for conservation efforts, hosting rare and threatened species and habitats. It also represents one of the earliest examples of ecological restoration, with more than 60 years of ongoing efforts. This pioneering project aims to restore a portion of Bermuda’s ecosystem to its pre-colonial state, focusing on the removal of invasive species, the replanting of native and endemic flora, and the reintroduction of native and endemic fauna. Notable successes include the recovery of the Greater Bermuda snail (Poecilozonites bermudensis) and the expanding population of the Bermuda petrel (Pterodroma cahow), or Cahow, a species once thought extinct. These milestones offer an opportunity to reflect on the lessons learned from decades of ecological restoration on Nonsuch Island. This presentation will explore the successes and challenges encountered, the technologies and methods employed, and the implications for future conservation strategies in Bermuda and beyond.

Speakers

Gerardo Garcia

Head of Ectotherms Department, Chester Zoo

Gerardo García, born in Barcelona, began his conservation career with the Recovery Programme for the Mallorcan midwife toad. He earned a Ph.D. on the ecology and conservation of the Madagascan side-necked turtle. He led the Herpetology Department at Jersey Zoo until 2012 before becoming... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 15:00 - 15:30 GMT
Room 3 The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

Talk