Press release from Rewilding Britain (19 June 2024):
412% INCREASE IN JOBS AT SCOTLAND REWILDING SITES, RESEARCH SHOWS
First rewilding job creation statistics for Scotland come as Rewilding Nation calls grow
Rewilding has boosted job numbers at sites across Scotland by more than 400% while tackling the nature and climate emergencies, new research by Rewilding Britain shows.
An analysis of 13 major rewilding projects covering almost 60,000 hectares between them has revealed a 412% increase in jobs since rewilding began. The varied sample includes sites owned or managed by charities, communities, private landowners, and public bodies.
The first findings of their kind for Scotland come as calls grow for the Scottish Government to declare Scotland the world’s first Rewilding Nation and commit to nature recovery across 30% of land and sea.
“These remarkable job creation figures show how rewilding can turbocharge social and economic benefits for people, while offering hope for reversing biodiversity loss and tackling climate breakdown,” said Kevin Cumming, Rewilding Britain’s Rewilding Director and Deputy Convenor of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance.
“This is yet another powerful illustration of why the Scottish Government should declare Scotland a Rewilding Nation. The choice and the opportunity for the country is huge – for jobs and local economies, and for better health, food production, re-peopling, and access to fresh water and clean air.”
Full-time equivalent jobs across the rewilding sites have increased five-fold from 24 before rewilding began to 123 now. The variety of jobs has boomed too, and includes nature-based hospitality and tourism, estate management, ecology, environmental monitoring, rewilding interventions, recreation, and education.
Benefits for people’s health and wellbeing, and opportunities for gaining valuable skills and experience, have also surged thanks to combined volunteer numbers at the sites increasing from zero to 435.
The sites began rewilding at different times, and are all over 100 hectares in size. Together they cover a total of 59,496 hectares, of which 43,233 hectares are rewilding. They are all members of the Rewilding Britain-managed Rewilding Network, which brings together and supports projects across Britain.
The largest recorded rise in jobs is at Trees for Life’s 4,000-hectare Dundreggan estate near Loch Ness. Since the rewilding charity’s purchase of the former deer stalking estate in 2008, jobs have soared from one to 36, while volunteer numbers have risen from zero to 100.
At Dundreggan, Trees for Life is restoring the Caledonian forest and its wildlife. Last year, the charity opened the world’s first Rewilding Centre on the estate in the Highlands, to showcase how rewilding can give people inspiring experiences, create jobs and benefit rural communities.
At the community-owned Tarras Valley Nature Reserve in Dumfries and Galloway, jobs have already risen from one to six. The 4,250-hectare nature restoration project on Langholm Moor was created after the town of Langholm raised £6m to buy the former grouse moor between 2020-2022.
The pioneering buyout led to the creation of the vast new reserve to support community regeneration, address climate breakdown, and restore nature. Emerging opportunities include conservation grazing, regenerative farming, restoration of peatlands and native woodlands, and eco-tourism.
Rewilding Britain will continue to add new job creation data from a growing number of rewilding sites as it becomes available.
Despite growing praise for its rewilding progress, Scotland is one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth. Intensive agriculture and climate breakdown are having the biggest impacts on habitats and wildlife, with other threats including non-native forestry, pollution, and introduced species, research shows.
The Scottish Rewilding Alliance’s Rewilding Nation Charter, calling on the Scottish Government to declare Scotland a rewilding nation, was launched this spring and has already been signed by thousands of people.
Rewilding 30% of Scotland can be achieved by restoring habitats including peatlands, native woodlands, wetlands, rivers and seas, with no loss of productive farmland, says the Alliance.
ENDS
Raptor Persecution UK 
Very timely!
That is great news! I contributed to Tarras Valley and Langholm; I’m pleasead to see it’s getting along well!
The article notes “Scotland is one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth”. As I understand it, this is based on the Biodiversity Intactness Index but this doesn’t have a ranking for Scotland but for the UK as a whole. Is there some other data set for Scotland specifically?
Great news, which makes a wonderful change.
It only goes to prove that rewilding works for both the communities and nature.
Long may it continue and that the 30% of land and sea is given over to nature
Rewilding is the way to go. It provides a lot of much needed jobs locally, protects and restores Scotland’s valuable Wild Land and peatland, and encourages an increase in biodiversity at a time of biodiversity crisis. However, the Scottish Government is encouraging the destruction of valuable peatland and Wild Land by forcing through wind turbine development planning applications that have been refused planning permission by council planning committees. I used to think wind farms were a great idea, but I’ve since discovered that they destroy peatland and the complex ecological systems within it, which releases previously captured carbon back into the air again, replace thousands of acres of peat soil with concrete, pollute rivers, further reduce biodiversity in the area, and negatively affect the quality of life of people who find themselves living near them – the noise pollution can be very bad, and it can travel several kilometres. Tourism suffers because people don’t want to come to the wilds of Scotland and find their traditional holiday cottage or B&B is next to an industrial turbine development, and touring round Scotland without seeing turbines on the skyline is becoming increasingly more difficult. The ‘renewable’ electricity generated is then transported out of Scotland by way of new pylon developments (built on peatland), and sold off. After the construction phase is over there are very few jobs created, and hardly any of these locally. The developer and the landowner who sells to the developer make a lot of money, and the Scottish Government makes a healthy profit, too. Next time you hear someone saying all their electricity comes from renewable sources, spare a thought for the damaged Wild Land and peatland, the injured and killed raptors, birds and bats, the displaced wildlife, the polluted rivers, and the felled trees. Scotland has wonderful resources, but it scores badly on the Biodiversity Intactness Index (about 12th from bottom, out of over 200 countries and states) because successive Scottish Governments haven’t valued Scotland’s natural resources, and still don’t. The more land in Scotland that can be rewilded, the better.