THE idea that we can carry on what we’ve been doing for the past couple of centuries, which is the war against Nature, is over,’ declares Prof Sir Dieter Helm, professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford, who believes that the damage wreaked can be reversed if we all play a part in the rejuvenation of the natural world. Taking issue with the term ‘wilding’, however, he states: ‘Going back to the wild, or just going wild, suggests that there’s a separation between us and Nature, but we’re a part of it and nothing in Nature is now non-human, and so I prefer the old-fashioned idea of conservation management.
‘If everyone did No Mow May, allowed wildflowers to grow and got rid of pesticides on their own patches,’ he adds, ‘that would increase the habitat for insects and invertebrates, which is crucial for the biodiversity web, and it would make a huge difference. These small efforts are so important, yet they are active conservation management, not abandonment. Let’s all have a national effort to do something positive to take things forward.’
‘These small efforts are so important, yet they are active conservation management, not abandonment’
However, there are hurdles, says Prof Helm, not least our general lack of mindfulness: ‘A population with preoccupations doesn’t see any consequence if there are no swallows, for example, and if such things disappear.’
Isabella Tree, who oversees rewilding at Knepp Castle in West Sussex, is of the opinion that it is the size of the looming natural apocalypse that can make it appear insurmountable. ‘Sometimes, the dread and the doom of facing [this] is: what can one individual do? But you can make a difference.’
One individual who’s been making a difference for many years in terms of ‘wilding’ is The King, not least at Sandringham in Norfolk, where the conversion to an organic system was kickstarted six years ago. In 2021, he told COUNTRY LIFE: ‘The removal of all insecticides and other inorganic sprays will play a major role in increasing beneficial insect pollinator numbers. With
