Allowing space for nature: Rewilding to heal the earth

resilience • September 28,2026

The term, rewilding, often elicits strong emotions. Anger is provoked that farmers will be forced to waste precious cropland, letting it return to the wild, or that dangerous animals will be released into towns and cities. Elsewhere, guerrilla rewilders are secretly breeding butterflies, birds and beavers, and illegally releasing them across the countryside. Although rewilding is often thought of as keeping humans “away”, in fact, people must be integrated into much of the rewilding process, living alongside and allowing space for “wildness.”