Rebirding: Winner of the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation: Restoring Britain's Wildlife

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Let’s be the first generation since we colonised Britain to leave our children better off for wildlife,” Macdonald exhorts. All rational argument seems to be on his side.

I feel like he almost lives in some kind of dream where practicalities of location seem not to exist. And to promote eco tourism in Wales is to promote driving due to our poor public transport links. Would the wildlife of Wales ultimately suffer from the added pollution from additional vehicles on our already conjested, narrow, poorly upkept roads? As larger rewilding projects get underway, and free-roaming animals return to our countryside at alandscape-level, Iam sure that in my lifetime we’ll see the triumphant return of the Butcher Bird aswell. And which of the current reintroductions or recolonisations gets you most excited? I learned some interesting things from this book, while thoroughly enjoying it. I learned to look at the "natural" areas that my country (the US) has set aside and view them with different eyes. Are they really all that natural?

They’re just improbably glossy. It’s the first bird for which Ihave awritten record: 2 nd April 1996, St David’s Head, Pembrokeshire. It finally landed right beside us — and my father threw it asandwich. This has always seemed an ecologically equivocal thing to do, but it kept the curious bird’s interest. Ben concludes that we should do more in terms of winning hearts and minds while being bold in demanding change. This is a wake-up call to the blanket use of dangerously toxic agricultural chemicals. So meticulously informed, rigorously researched, yet accessible to the mainstream, Carson’s writing paints two evocative pictures through her suite of characters, from the robin to the gypsy moth. Yes, the indiscriminate spraying of pesticides such as DDT was detrimental to this planet’s ecology and our own health. Yet Silent Springemphasises that we have the power to call for change. He paints a beautiful picture, and sets out a way which would allow the UK to restore its natural heritage as well as provide jobs for many. RSPB and others are slowly moving in this direction, and this book helps to push them along. This is the best book on nature, conservation and rewilding I read in 2019 – perhaps one of the best I’ve ever read. I finished reading it with a real sense of hope for the future. It presents the best argument yet for rewilding before it’s too late, and shows us exactly how to do it. ‘The richer the world around us – the scruffier, messier, the more full of life – the more that life will reward us in return.’

This book is a ‘Must read’ and a ‘Good read’ but not necessarily a ‘Must agree with’ type of book. By which I mean that it is well written and has the right mixture of interesting facts and well-explained views mixed in with a few areas where I thought (you might not) ‘Hang on, I don’t agree with that’. And that’s the type of book that grabs and keeps my attention. I recommend it highly – you should read it and I think you may well enjoy it a lot. I didn't realize the impact of historical large herbivores on the landscape and that birds evolved with these herbivores and their predators. Plants respond to the presence of herbivores by changing their growth habits and thus providing birds with the infrastructure they need to thrive. What we think of as farmland birds were grassland birds before farming. Birds, animals, insects, fungi and plants all need to be allowed to grow naturally with each other. There is an inherent risk with conservation that we become part of aclosed conversation. Outside of that conversation, nature continues to vanish. When considering this technique for yourself or your child, be sure to weigh the evidence against the risk. While a few hours of supervised shallow breathing will probably not hurt you, there is little to no evidence that it will lead to a definitive, cathartic experience. Make sure your rebirthing practitioner can recognize an emergency and provide emergency care if necessary.Following this is a series of views about how to restore the landscapes that our birds need. The National Parks come in for some restructuring (in line, interestingly, with what the Government’s adviser, Julian Glover, has said in his recent report on designated landscapes), the wild-deer estates of the Scottish highlands play their role, the forests are rewilded, our urban cityscapes are left messy, and the moorlands of England and Wales become golden, purple, and popular among human visitors. There is a sense here that the polarised fight which we see in action in the English uplands could, in Ben’s eyes, be solved more subtly by championing European-style hunting. The classic argument in response is that ​ ‘scrub will take hold’. Good! Scrub accounts for more specialist and declining species than any other British habitat except aged wood-pasture. The more physically involved simulation of birth carries a risk of oxygen deprivation, which can lead to brain damage and even death.

In Dumfries and Galloway, a group of friends are attempting to recreate the ancient Scottish wildwood across 1,600 acres. In Norfolk, the Ken Hill Estate is turning a thousand acres of the lowlands over to nature. A mathematician, an internet entrepreneur and an environmental campaigner have all recently snapped up small parcels of land with the intention of restoring some vestige of wildness to the English landscape. I want to be able to create a platform where these disparate projects and these inspired people can all come together and talk things over, share their ideas, and share what works,” he says.

British birds have evolved over millennia, part of the ecosystem which developed as the glaciers retreated, then as humans settled and farmed. They evolved in a landscape populated by the large mammals which are now extinct - aurochs, wolf, boar, lynx - and some have adapted to our farms. Over the centuries, populations and diversity have declined to the drastic point we see today where many birds are on the brink of extinction. In addition to the historical context for what our landscapes looked like, I got a lesson in the recent history of conservation of lands in Britain and how that could be improved. I appreciate the author’s thesis that ecotourism could be responsible for many more rural jobs than we currently have. I think this is an idea that could help world-wide with conservation of land for wildlife. The Knepp Estate tends to dominate the conversation, but it is not the only rewilding project in the UK. Faced with the devastating loss of biodiversity, a diverse assortment of landowners and individuals are increasingly taking matters into their own hands. Bold in vision and clear in purpose, Benedict MacDonald shows how we can transform and return the UK’s wilderness to its full glory, without sacrificing people or their own livelihoods, but rather by enriching rural economies and transitioning away from dying and decaying industries. It’s remarkable to read that despite what our eyes see, the vast majority of British national parks are dead, deserts devoid of any substantial birdlife, left in the hands of forestry or deer keeping that have no benefit to birds and natural wildlife. MacDonald shows how with a few reädjustments, large areas of the UK’s former grouse lands, Welsh hills, and the Somerset levels can be transformed into wonderful wilderness preserves, the envy of Europe and America. He boldly plots out even the return of Dalmatian pelicans by 2060!

The Chair of Judges for the new Global Conservation Prize was BBC Countryfile presenter, Charlotte Smith. She was joined by Adrian Phillips, conservationist; Rachel Woolliscroft, sustainability expert; and Craig Bennett, CEO UK Wildlife Trusts. To aim for one self-sustaining colony of Dalmatian pelicans by 2050 would be enormously ambitious — but also achievable. Swifts are surprisingly long-lived, on average for 10 years and sometimes double that, and possess an incredibly powerful migratory instinct which we do not yet fully understand. That means the birds that alight here from Africa each May will in all likelihood be the very same ones that left the previous year. Surely the most dismaying message of Rebirding is that the British are gardening their islands to death. Everythingfrom landscapes to individual endangered species are being managed and monitored according to human-set targets. But nature is dynamic: populations and habitats need to grow, mature and change if biodiversity is to thrive. If only the British would keep their hands off it and let nature take its own course, Macdonald contends, it would stand a chance. Ensuring that the birds have enough insects to eat is another vital part of the new campaign. Swifts alone are voracious feeders. On a good day a pair can gobble up 20,000 insects and spiders between them. Their constant energy supply means they even sleep while airborne, propelled by boomerang-shaped wings which make them the fastest bird in powered flight ever recorded. While the peregrine falcon achieves higher speeds, these are the result of the raptor stooping (essentially plummeting down from a great height) rather than beating its wings.Where the book loses a little clout, in my opinion, is in the simplification of some of the arguments. The author suggests, with good evidence, that rewilding and letting go of vast swathes of our country is what is needed to save wildlife. It is hard to argue that point. However, at the end of one chapter he states Knepp is "more profitable, more diverse, more humane, more robust - and better for both people and wildlife alike". There are other forces at play here that the author doesn't touch on. Knepp's organic, expensive, meat, which I have tasted and love, isn't affordable or accessible to everyone. Organic food comes at a premium and requires much more land footprint. Overpopulation (which the author dismisses based on the relatively small physical land footprint we take up) and our dietary choices are two fundamental issues not touched on as key enables of lessening pressures on land. Do we import our food instead when we should be encouraging more local produce and reducing our carbon footprint? The owners of Knepp themselves concede not all farming can be like it is there. I think any book which is trying to rewrite aspects of our agricultural system should touch on these fundamental societal issues we are facing, that there are simply too many of us living too lavish a lifestyle. I did, however, warm to the idea of us hunting and eating more deer, which, in the absence of predators, have overpopulated and decimated some of our countryside. This is the story of how Britain became a factory,’ Benedict Macdonald writes in this remarkable work of horror and hope. So getting this book to key landowners, particularly estate owners, the Forestry Commission and decision-makers, is going to bekey. If your child is showing signs of PTSD or failure to attach to you, there are other recommended treatment options. Talk to a healthcare provider to find out what may be best for you.