Everyone can be a rewilder. If you do not have a background in ecology, you can contribute as a lawyer, communicator, tourist operator, business.
If you are a conservationist, you do not need to work in an organization or a job position that has “rewilding” in the name.If you are applying the rewilding mindset and the rewilding principles, if you are working in restoring ecological processes in order to reduce human management – then you are working in rewilding.
What do you do and how is that linked to rewilding?
What is your background?
Initially, I qualified as a wilderness guide of walking safaris and a tracker in South Africa in 2012. Now I am enrolled in a masters in Biological Diversity, Ecology & Evolution.
When did you got involved in rewilding for the first time?
I got involved in the Bison Rewilding Project in Romania in the Southern Carpathians in early 2015, and ended up living there full time for 3,5 years. Together with the local team, I focused mainly on setting up sustainable ecotourism programs that enable guests to have special and memorable experiences, and the local community to benefit from rewilding. With the recently built WeWilder campus we have reached a significant milestone in complementing the bison rewilding process.
Do you have any suggestions for anyone that wants to get involved with rewilding?
The simplest way to get involved is to start talking about it with others and I guess to follow the flow of opportunities. I don’t think there is a clear answer to this, since every one is different and has a different path. But one thing is for sure, you don’t have to be an ecologist to be active in rewilding!
What do you do and how is that linked to rewilding?
I am a professional field mycologist specialising in the conservation of fungi, and I work as a self-employed consultant on a variety of rewilding projects across the UK. My role involves conduction fungal biodiversity surveys and monitoring, using field identification skills as well as DNA approaches to study how fungi are recovering as the rewilding process unfolds. Because fungi are highly interdependent with plants and animals and are dynamic in nature, traditional conservation measures that focus on preserving areas in which important fungi are found may not be sufficient to prevent their decline, especially if there are other missing elements of the ecosystem. I take my experience in fungal ecology to help rewilding projects develop strategies for preserving fungal diversity, and help them understand how that fungal diversity in turn supports the rest of the ecosystem.
What is your background?
I studied for a MSc in Plant and Fungal Taxonomy, Diversity, and Conservation at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Queen Mary University of London and have previously worked as a science teacher in a secondary school.
When and how did you got involved in rewilding for the first time?
Like many people, my initial inroad to rewilding was the book Feral by George Monbiot, which immediately resonated with me as a conservation paradigm fit for the 21st century. Coinciding with the time I read that book in my early twenties, I was involved with my university’s mountaineering society and one of our autumn trips had us visit Snowdonia in Wales. On a walk one evening, I found myself in a very peculiar woodland. It was rather damp, the field layer lush with ferns, mosses, and other herbaceous plants, and lichens draped the trees. I was captivated by this habitat which I’ve never experienced before, and it was many years before I realised I had entered a remnant of an Atlantic rainforest. Since then, the preservation and restoration of oceanic woodlands and their fungi has been the driving force behind my interest in rewilding, and I am now involved with multiple rainforest projects, studying their fungal diversity.
Do you have any suggestions for a young person that wants to get involved with rewilding?
My biggest piece of advice would be to consider rewilding like one would consider any ecosystem: as composed of numerous interacting and interrelated components that give rise to the whole. Oftentimes we may get sidetracked by assuming that rewilding work only involves the reintroduction of charismatic megafauna, or having to own land as a prerequisite, but the truth is that it is a holistic approach to nature recovery that needs multiple skillsets – including soft skills such as communication – and requires specialists with knowledge across many taxonomic groups, not just animals! It’s up to you to analyse the direction that rewilding is heading as a movement, and figure out how your unique interests and skills can be of value to it.
30 yo – Finland
PhD Candidate & Field Ecologist
35 yo – the Netherlands
PhD Candidate & Illustrator
What do you do and how is that linked to rewilding?
At the moment I’m a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen. My project is called ‘On the European bison’s rewilding hooves: How to visualize it?’. It is an interdisciplinary practice-based PhD research between visual arts and natural sciences. I look into the effectiveness of different visual communication tools for specific ecological subjects, using a study case of rewilding with European bison as the ecological base for my visual research. A visual communication toolkit created in the project for this ecological subject is available.
What is your background?
My background is scientific and children’s illustration, and graphic design.
When did you get involved in rewilding for the first time?
At the start of my PhD in 2019 I first heard about rewilding and got interested in the subject, to a point where I decided to make it part of my research.
Do you have any suggestions for a young person that wants to get involved with rewilding?
Any moment, age and place seems good to get involved in rewilding. In my case I come from visual arts and through the bridge of visual communication managed to connect natural sciences to my own background. Rewilding can be covered and helped by many areas and audiences, its just a matter of seeing what each person’s potential contribution can be and apply it to the rewilding process.
What do you do and how is that linked to rewilding?
Noah is the Chief Technical Officer
Noah is the technical lead at Youngwilders, responsible for the detailed design of our
wilding projects as well as the behind the scenes mapping and calculations which
support our work. Noah has a passion for improving watercourses as part of our
projects, and believes that river restoration can be the cornerstone for connectivity
between wild spaces.
Jack is the Co-founder and director
of the organisation.
What is your background?
Noah has a background in Environmental Engineering, with a particular focus on
hydro-morphology, flooding, and river restoration, and graduated with an MEng in The
Environment, Energy and Sustainability in 2019. Jack studied Philosophy at undergraduate level before completing a Masters at the
Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustinability at the University of British
Columbia in Vancouver.
When did you get involved in rewilding for the first time?
We heard about rewilding mainly from books and the media. We started discussing it between ourselves and at some point
we really decided to give it a go and try it out ourselves. We started Youngwilders from
the vision that when we grow old we would like to walk through a singing landscape
that has recovered on account of actions we had taken. Moving into the rewilding
sphere, we felt that there were many small plots of land that had massive potential
but were currently being ignored. At the same time there were masses of young
people who were convinced of the worth of rewilding and who were really keen to act
but had very few opportunities to do so.
Do you have any suggestions for a young person that wants to get involved with rewilding?
Do not be intimidated if you don’t have the technical or scientific knowledge.
The basic ideas of rewilding are very intuitive and anyone can grasp them.
Also, the rewilding movement is bigger than solely ecological ideas and there
are lots of other transferable skills like writing and speaking that are vital for
the movement. Believe in yourself because everyone
brings something to the table-
Message anyone you think might be able to help you do
what you want to do.
29 yo – Italy
Designer
Rewildfires
What do you do and how is that linked to rewilding?
I work as a Project Coordinator for Rewildfires. The Rewildfires project aimed to research the potential for rewilding in Sicily and explore the links between fires, grazing and rewilding. After its completion our team moves forward to work on small scale projects centered around capacity building, community engagement and monitoring.
What is your background?
I come from a Design background with an MA in Design for Social Impact.
When did you get involved in rewilding for the first time?
Few years ago I came across a documentary about rewilding and wolves in Europe, which was an eye-opener. Rewilding is very catchy and it really stuck with me, so I started looking up different organisations and people. Another more solid step I took was that I participated in the Rewilding Tourism training provided by Rewilding Europe and got certified. That how it how it really began for me. After that I reached out to other Bosch alumni like myself and together we applied for funding to make a study about rewilding opportunities in Sicily.
Do you have any suggestions for a young person that wants to get involved with rewilding?
Reach out to people! This made rewilding much more approachable and tangible for me.
Don’t hesitate to get involved! The more different your background the more you enrich the filed of rewilding!
Don’t be scared to start, we had little experience with grant applications, but our efforts were successful. You will find that there are people who value what you do and are willing to finance it.
Start small: we work with small grants that are manageable but still have impact, allowing us to take action while leaving space for trial and error.
In summary: Do small projects, bring results and prove your concept!
What do you do and how is that linked to rewilding?
I am mainly involved through the rewilding project my family is running. It is a farm
estate of about 26ha of which half is agriculture land and half pre-existing nature. We
are trying to convert it all into one nature area by improving biodiversity in the pre-
existing nature and converting the farmland back to nature using grazing of ponies
and cattle in the process. I am essentially the academic advisor and planner for the
project due to my biology background. In addition I also run a website called
The Extinctions where I write scientific articles
discussing the Quaternary Extinctions.
What is your background?
I have a MSc in Nature Management from Copenhagen University and BSc in Biology
from the Imperial College of London.
When did you get involved in rewilding for the first time?
A friend initially introduced me to the idea years ago but it was only during my
Bachelor studies that I started to really generate an interest. When you look back on
what our diversity used to be you see that we have such an impoverished nature and I
think people often do not seem to realize it. This led me to start the extinctions
website. Another thing that inspired me was the book Wilding by Isabella Tree. Joining
the European Young Rewilders and my family’s project have been a nice way to
continue my involvement with rewilding.
Do you have any suggestions for a young person that wants to get involved with rewilding?
My main advice is to be proactive. Don’t wait for rewilding to come to you, come to
rewilding! Get yourself out there! You can figure out for your self way way suit you
best but there is always a way no matter who you are!
You can always start your own initiatives. Although, starting initiatives of course
depends on who you are, what is your skill-set and where the opportunities lie, there
are many things you can do even if you don’t have a lot of opportunities. You can for
instance, always start a blog, contact your local nature organisation and start getting
involved in activism or finding a little plot in your garden or your parent’s garden and
getting to work there. Rewilding happens on many scales and there are a lot of
avenues into the field. There is not just the management component, there is also
getting the word out, starting a dialogue, pushing politicians, communicating
information to the general public or starting the discussion with people who are
already involved with rewilding. Although not all will guarantee you will be working full
time, they can definitely get you involved and connected with the movement.
24 yo – Italy
Natural Sciences student
What do you do and how is that linked to rewilding?
I have created a stepping stone in between farmlands by rewilding a small patch of land in North Italy. The project is called a “Oasi Naturalistica a Manera” and the area covers 320 sqm. I inherited this marginal land of a cropfield from my grandfather and, despite being small, I could see how it would benefit the local biodiversity and enhance nature in an agricultural landscape.
I crowfunded to buy native plant and dig a pond. After a few months, nature was already thriving. After I kick-started the processes, the vegetation is self-regulating and invasive species do not grow. Insects, mammals, birds and other animals came back and are frequent visitors to the oasis. The biggest success has been that the pond became a breeding site for the European green toad, with recurrent egg masses.
What is your background?
I have a bachelor in Natural Sciences and I am passionate about herpetology.
When did you get involved in rewilding for the first time?
When I received this patch of land I started to inform myself on what to do with it and how to start the natural processes. I had never done such projects from scratches, so I asked experts and I came to know about rewilding through my courses.
Do you have any suggestions for a young person that wants to get involved with rewilding?
If you are a young person with access to a patch of land, rewild it: stepping stones are important in fragmented ecosystems. Get in contact with local nature authorities such as parks, they are often looking for people to do such things or know where to direct them. Do not let uncertainty hold you back, making mistakes is human and luckily nature is there to help us. Ask for expertise and help, including your friends: make it fun!
What do you do and how is that linked to rewilding?
I work for Sylvester Rewilding, an organisation which aims to collectively create wilderness areas in Europe that are managed democratically. As their head of Rewilding I do everything that has to do with rewilding communications. This includes managing our SoMe channels, photography, writing blog posts. I am also a part of the Eco-team of Sylvester
which focuses on the practical side of our rewild efforts. There I provide a link between the ecological team and the rest of the organisation
What is your background?
I have a BSc in Psychology and I am currently doing an MSc in Cognitive Science.
When did you get involved in rewilding for the first time?
I heard about rewidling for the first time from our co-founder Julius. He gave me the book Feral by George Monbiot and bombarded me with articles and podcasts about it. From there we started to talk about rewilding and how it can be a great opportunity to actually restore ecosystems and help solve our environmental problems. That is how I really got into
it. What really caught me about rewilding was that it included humans. This resonated with me, because as a
phycologist I knew the importance of getting people on board for successful conservation efforts. Rewilding recognised how important it is for people to see nature restoration as their own mission. This was super inspiring for me and I wanted to be part of it. My active involvement came later with Sylvester. Our community made me feel like I can put our ideas through. I was surrounded by people who believed in our dream and were willing to put all in to make rewilding happen.
Do you have any suggestions for a young person that wants to get involved with rewilding?
My main advice is to just go for it! Do not be afraid to reach out to people and ask: ‘Can I help?’. Connect, talk to people and join a community. I had no clue about ecosystems and nature conservation when I started out, but got a very positive response from the rewilding movement. People took me seriously and I felt like they valued what I do. So don’t be afraid to reach out.