of the UK National Parks nature recovery
programmes. “Delivery of this requires
shared action, as our national parks are
living, working landscapes with the vast
majority of land in private ownership.
We welcome the sentiment for
wilder National Parks and are working
in partnership nationally and locally to
secure the resources and policy tools
necessary to bring about landscape-scale
nature recovery.”
The bigger picture
When it comes to restoring biodiversity in
our national parks, many conservationists
feel that rewilding 1 0% of protected areas
is unlikely to be enough. Rewilding Britain
has called for another 5 0% of parks to
consist of ‘nature recovery areas’, built
on government financial support for
nature-friendly agriculture.
According to the RSPB, changes in
farmland management over the past 50
years have been a key factor in declining
biodiversity. And the Glover Review is
clear that Britain’s system of landscape
protection has been hampered by having
little influence over “a system of farming
subsidies which, although it has improved,
for decades rewarded intensification
regardless of the consequences.”
An NFU spokesperson contacted for
this article said: “Farmers play an integral
role in shaping the cherished landscapes we
see and enjoy in our national parks today.
With more than 3 0,000km of hedgerows
having been planted or restored, farmers
already work hard to encourage wildlife,
the landscape, benefit soil and water, and
reduce their impact on the climate.”
Some campaigners are hopeful that the
government’s proposed overhaul of farm
grants – which will see farmers incentivised
for providing ‘public goods’ such as
protecting water supplies, capturing carbon
in soil and increasing wildlife – could helprestore biodiversity across national parks
and in other areas of the country. Others are
more sceptical.
“Subsidies don’t tie people in for
perpetuity,” says Mark. “If a farmer decides
to do something different then he can – and
anything that’s been paid to him is millions
of pounds out of the window.”
He argues that rewilding public land
is the way forward – and not just in
national parks.
“If we turned public subsidies into land
purchase then it would only take us 11
years to buy the whole of the uplands,” he
says. “Nobody in the power and ownership
structure of this country will allow that to
happen. But what we should be doing is
saying ‘what do we have in our portfolio of
public land where we can start making a
difference for nature?’
“The idea of rewilding public land is a
good idea, but picking on national parks just
muddies the water.”Glen Affric: not part of a national
park, but the focus of a long-
running ‘rewilding’ effortAugust 2021 The Great Outdoors 21