Support rewilding – in your garden and elsewhere

See below the Support rewilding Sub-Actions. Click or tap the sections further below to reveal a summary of the benefits of rewilding, future-gazing to help visualise how this would work for you, a thought-provoking video, a step-by-step guide outlining how to achieve this Top Action, expert tips, and useful links and references.

It is recommended that you pick one or two of the Sub-Actions to progress at a time rather than try and complete them all at once. Visit our Approach page for other tips on how to set yourself up to minimise your environmental impact and get to net zero carbon.

Want to progress this Top Action? Start by making your commitment using the button below, which will help to motivate you to keep progressing.

Have you completed this Top Action already? Select the appropriate button below to update your progress. You would need to complete:

• all the Halfway (0.5) Sub-Actions to complete half of the Top Action.
• all the Halfway (0.5) and Full (1.0) Sub-Actions to fully complete the Top Action.

The natural world supports every aspect of our lives, making it possible for us to live. The global ecosystem provides us with free services, for instance clean, oxygenated air and food. A variety of organisms are essential to this through activities such as photosynthesis and pollination. We cannot survive without the natural world.

Across the world, but particularly in densely populated places such as the UK, human influence is now so extensive that nature simply does not have the space to thrive or in many cases to survive at all. By many benchmarks nature is in steep decline, and the expansion of human features such as roads and urban settlements has been replacing, separating and devaluing natural habitats that are crucial for the survival of species. Much agricultural land is managed unsustainably, to improve production for humans in the short term, but is of limited value for nature. For further detail and links to wider reading, see the Climate and ecological emergency page.

By protecting and restoring the natural world, we are restoring the life-support system of planet.

Peatlands store large amounts of CO₂ and when this is extracted to make peat-based compost, the peatlands dry out and stop absorbing CO₂ and some of the stored CO₂ is released. Peatlands are one of the most effective natural systems for absorbing and storing CO₂and so are essential to protect and restore.

Pesticides and herbicides are designed to kill living organisms. They are usually targeted at specific organisms that are considered pests, but inevitably end up killing a whole variety of other organisms at the same time. By using natural solutions to manage our gardens we can keep the garden ecosystem healthy, which will help to control those pests in the long run.

A connection to nature can improve our health and wellbeing, for instance reducing stress levels, as reported by the BBC.

Learning about nature is fascinating and fulfilling – the natural world is filled with wonders to explore and experience.

True nature-based approaches such as rewilding are low cost and self-regulating, although active management can be particularly valuable when we want to create and maintain diversity or if we need to create specific habitats to support species in danger of extinction.

In our gardens, rewilding can save time with gardening that we may prefer to spend on something else. Whatever outside area we have available, whether it is a small balcony or a large garden, many of us can probably do a lot more for nature than we realise, and at the same time we can get more pleasure from our gardens as they come into bloom and are filled with life. Nature friendly gardening should also bring in wildlife that can help regulate those garden pests and cut down the attacks on the vegetable patch!

Try and imagine how your life will be and how you will feel when you complete this EcoTracker Top Action. This may feel like a big change or a small change, but really focus on how the benefits of the change could impact and improve your life and the lives of others.

For instance try and imagine how you will feel about:

• your reduced environmental impact which will help avoid the worst effects of climate change and ecological breakdown within your lifetime, helping to ensure you and others can live a long and full life.
• improved long term prospects for your children and future generations, who will have a much greater opportunity to avoid climate change and ecological breakdown during their lives. They will be much safer than in the alternative future of extreme climate change and ecological breakdown and many lives will be saved. Will you be able to look your child in the eye in years to come and say that you have done everything you can to protect their future?
• improved opportunities and social justice (climate justice) for those around the world who are currently struggling with the early impacts of climate change and ecological breakdown, with many lives and livelihoods saved.
• helping to restore the life-support system of the planet.
• improving your health and wellbeing and reducing your stress levels by connecting with nature.
• learning useful new skills.
• gaining fascinating new nature-based experiences.
• enjoying a vibrant garden, filled with wildlife.
• worrying less about those pests and letting nature do the work for you.
• avoiding indiscriminately killing nature with pesticides and herbicides.
• some of the above may be really life-changing for you.

An effective way of developing a commitment and ongoing motivation to progressing this EcoTracker Top Action is to work out which of the themes above generate the most powerful emotional responses for you personally. Then try to capture this in some way and store it for when you might need motivation later.

You might be able to create a strong image in your memory, or a link to existing memories. You might want to write down how you feel say on a post-it note or in a diary as a reminder; perhaps somewhere that you will regularly see the message or somewhere you can come back to when you want to. You might even want to share this on your ‘progress thread’ on social media. If you are feeling creative, perhaps even draw an image to represent your future. Also, consider whether you might already have an object which could trigger your motivation e.g. a picture of your children.

These steps are generic because this is your unique personal journey and you will need to explore the details for yourself, using this process and the Expert Tips below as a guide and support.

The time required to complete steps may vary quite a lot depending on your resources or skill level, or whether or not you do the work yourself or pay a professional to do it. It is recommended that you pick one or two of the Sub-Actions to progress at a time rather than try and do them all at once, and so you may go through steps multiple times for the different Sub-Actions before you have completed the Top Action.

1. Build motivation from within to complete this EcoTracker Top Action, assisted by reading the Benefits and Future-gazing to imagine how your life will improve (10 minutes)
2. Make a personal commitment and share this to social media (5 minutes)
3. Book a time in your diary for progressing your EcoTracker actions – you may wish to set up a regular slot for taking actions (5 minutes)
4. Research – read the guidance on this EcoTracker Top Action page such as the Expert Tips and you may wish to visit the community for support (30 minutes +)
5. Discuss with others in your household and agree broadly what you will do (15-30 minutes)
6. Get the resources lined up e.g. find what you need online, locate or borrow/rent/buy the materials and tools (2-3 hours)
7. Make a final decision on exactly what you will do and book in a date (15 minutes)
8. Complete all Sub-Actions to enable you to complete the Full Top Action (5 + hours)
9. Visit our Tracker page, and share your progress to social media (5 minutes). You may want to share your progress as you go through the steps for each Sub-Action.
10. Once you’ve mastered this Top Action, why not also help others in the community complete their’s, with tips and support (1 minute, periodically)

Why not join a nature conservation organisation as a supporter from the start and you will receive emails and magazines full of top-tips. They can inspire you and help you complete the other EcoTracker Sub-Actions. RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts are highly recommended for those in the UK. They have online guidance which can help with:

• some very easy nature-friendly gardening, such as doing less gardening e.g. letting some or all of the garden grow wild. This will also save you time! Consider allowing your lawn to turn into a wildflower meadow.
• installing other nature-friendly features into your garden – many of which are relatively simple to do e.g. sowing wildflower seeds or installing a bird box. Creating a pond may take a bit more time but can be one of the most effective ways of bringing a variety of wildlife into your garden.
• excellent ideas for locations to visit for nature walks, such as in their reserves.

Do some research and decide which types of nature friendly and rewilding measures you would ideally like to install in your garden. Visit your local garden centre, where you can get many of the materials for installing nature friendly and rewilding measures. You may wish to discuss this with customer assistants at your garden centre, or ask for their suggestions.

Your garden centre should also have peat free compost options for you to choose, or you can make compost yourself using a composter and your garden and food waste – follow the composting tips on the Reduce food waste EcoTracker Top Action page.

Rather than using pesticides or herbicides, choose natural solutions to manage your garden, as recommended by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Consider the climate and ecosystem that you live in when installing features into your garden (e.g. the plants that you grow) to ensure they are appropriate for the climate and will complement the surrounding ecosystem. Native species are strongly preferable and drought tolerant species are recommended if you live in a water-stressed area. You could do even better by finding out which species are locally endangered and / or conservation priorities, and then by installing nature-friendly garden features targeted to help these species. Rewilding barren landscaped areas like front driveways offer a big opportunity for a positive change and could be achieved by using pots and planters. If you have a flat roof area, consider adding a green roof, although be sure to check whether the structure could take the added weight. Whatever area you have available, whether it is a small balcony or a large garden, you can probably do a lot more for nature than you realise, and at the same time you can get more pleasure from your garden. Rewilded gardens need not be entirely untidy and some pruning and weeding is allowed in order to promote a good diversity of plant species and habitats which will in turn support a good diversity of wildlife.

Don’t blame yourself for your past habits, but choose to focus on what you can improve. Similarly, choose not to blame others in your household or elsewhere for their current or past habits, but to point out to them the damaging impacts of some typical gardening methods and the benefits of rewilding. Encourage and support others to make changes (e.g. by using EcoTracker). It can be easier to change our habits during a moment of larger change such as when you move home; when you are going through such a period, it is a great time to reset and work on building new habits. See the Approach page for further suggestions on developing habits.

If you’re not ready to join a nature conservation organisation, you might want to start by watching a TV nature documentary such as one of the many by David Attenborough, or for topical local UK nature coverage, Springwatch. For tips on gardening you might want to watch TV programmes such as Gardener’s World (which also has a website full of handy articles to read). If you are UK based, search on BBC iPlayer or other streaming services and there will be a wide variety of nature and gardening programmes available.

BBC (health and wellbeing and nature): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52479763

Conservation organisations:

RSPB (UK focused): https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/

The Wildlife Trusts (UK focused): https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions

WWF (International): https://www.wwf.org.uk/

Gardening:

Gardener’s World: https://www.gardenersworld.com/

Royal Horticultural Society: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=817