Rewilding: Linking Biodiversity to Ecosystem Services

Rewilding has emerged as one of the most exciting approaches to restoring ecosystems, enhancing biodiversity, and delivering essential ecosystem services. By stepping back and allowing nature to reclaim and manage landscapes, rewilding fosters a self-sustaining environment that benefits both biodiversity and human society. But how exactly does rewilding work, and what impact does it have on ecosystem services like carbon sequestration, water regulation, and soil health?

This article will explore how rewilding contributes to the delivery of ecosystem services and enhances biodiversity, demonstrating the powerful role it plays in creating resilient, healthy landscapes.

How Does Rewilding Contribute to the Delivery of Ecosystem Services?

Ecosystem services are the benefits that humans receive from natural environments. These include vital functions like carbon storage, water filtration, and soil regeneration—all of which are essential for life on Earth. Rewilding projects, by restoring natural processes, help ecosystems perform these services more effectively.

Carbon Sequestration

1. One of the most valuable ecosystem services provided by rewilding is carbon sequestration. As trees, plants, and soils naturally regenerate, they absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to mitigate climate change.
2. Rewilding projects that involve restoring forests, wetlands, or grasslands create vast carbon sinks. For example, rewilding former agricultural land by allowing native woodland to return results in significant carbon capture, as trees and soils lock away carbon for decades, if not centuries. Wetlands, in particular, are highly efficient at sequestering carbon, storing it in both vegetation and peat soils.
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Water Regulation

1. Rewilding plays a crucial role in natural water regulation. When natural habitats like forests and wetlands are restored, they help slow water runoff, reduce flooding, and improve water quality by filtering pollutants.
2. Trees and other vegetation absorb excess rainwater, reducing surface runoff and preventing floods. At the same time, restored wetlands act as natural sponges, soaking up floodwaters and gradually releasing them back into rivers and streams, which can be particularly valuable in areas prone to flooding.
3. Rewilded landscapes can also purify water naturally. For instance, wetlands filter out nutrients and pollutants before they enter larger water bodies, improving overall water quality.
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Soil Health and Erosion Control

1. Healthy soil is the foundation of any ecosystem, and rewilding helps restore and maintain soil fertility. As plants, trees, and other vegetation grow in rewilded areas, their roots help stabilise the soil, preventing erosion and reducing sediment runoff into rivers and streams.
2. Rewilding also promotes the growth of diverse plant species, which in turn supports a richer soil microbial community. This microbial activity is essential for nutrient cycling, helping to improve soil structure and fertility. Over time, these processes lead to healthier, more resilient soils that support both wildlife and agricultural productivity.
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Biodiversity as a Service

1. Biodiversity itself is an ecosystem service. A rich variety of species within an ecosystem contributes to its overall health and resilience. By enhancing biodiversity through rewilding, ecosystems become more capable of providing services like pest control, pollination, and disease regulation.
2. For example, rewilding projects that allow natural predators to return help control herbivore populations, which in turn supports plant regeneration. Similarly, by creating habitats for pollinators like bees and butterflies, rewilding ensures the continued pollination of plants, which is essential for both wild ecosystems and agriculture.

What Role Does Rewilding Play in Biodiversity Enhancement?

Biodiversity—the variety of life in an ecosystem—thrives in rewilded landscapes. By removing human intervention and allowing natural processes to take over, rewilding creates diverse, self-regulating ecosystems that support a wide range of species. Here’s how rewilding enhances biodiversity:

Habitat Restoration

1. Rewilding focuses on restoring natural habitats that have been lost or degraded by human activity. Whether it’s reforesting cleared land, restoring wetlands, or allowing grasslands to regenerate, these restored habitats provide essential homes for wildlife.
2. By creating a mosaic of different habitats—woodlands, wetlands, meadows, and rivers—rewilding projects support a wide range of species, from insects and birds to large mammals. As these habitats mature, they attract more species, increasing the overall biodiversity of the area.
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Species Reintroduction

1. Rewilding often involves reintroducing species that have been lost from an area. These reintroductions can be pivotal for ecosystem recovery, especially when keystone species—species that have a disproportionate effect on their environment—are involved.
2. For example, the reintroduction of beavers in certain rewilding projects has transformed landscapes. Beavers create wetlands by building dams, which slows down water flow, reduces flooding, and provides habitats for fish, amphibians, birds, and insects. Similarly, the reintroduction of predators like wolves or lynx in some rewilding projects helps manage herbivore populations, allowing forests and grasslands to regenerate.
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Natural Succession and Regeneration

1. Rewilding encourages natural processes like succession, where plant and animal communities gradually change over time, leading to more complex and diverse ecosystems. For instance, in a rewilded forest, early pioneer species like birch may colonise an area, followed by slower-growing species like oak. As these trees mature, they create habitats for a wide variety of species, from birds to fungi.
2. By allowing natural succession to occur, rewilding creates ecosystems that are more biodiverse and resilient than those managed for a single purpose, such as agriculture or commercial forestry.
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Supporting Pollinators and Other Key Species

1. Pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and moths play a vital role in maintaining biodiversity, as they help many plants reproduce. Rewilding projects that restore wildflower meadows, woodlands, and wetlands create habitats where pollinators can thrive.
2. Other key species, such as amphibians and reptiles, also benefit from rewilding. By restoring ponds, wetlands, and river systems, rewilding provides the breeding and feeding habitats these species need to survive.

The Long-Term Impact of Rewilding on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity

The benefits of rewilding extend far beyond the immediate restoration of a piece of land. Over time, rewilded landscapes become more resilient, diverse, and self-sustaining, capable of supporting a wide range of species and providing crucial ecosystem services that benefit both nature and humans.

Climate Resilience

1. By enhancing biodiversity and restoring natural habitats, rewilding creates landscapes that are more resilient to climate change. Diverse ecosystems are better able to withstand and recover from extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, and heatwaves.
2. Forests, wetlands, and grasslands restored through rewilding help buffer the impacts of climate change by regulating water cycles, reducing soil erosion, and sequestering carbon. This not only benefits wildlife but also protects human communities from the adverse effects of climate change.
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Sustainable Land Management

1. Rewilding offers a model for sustainable land management that balances the needs of nature with those of people. By restoring ecosystems, landowners can improve the health of their land without the need for intensive management or chemical inputs.
2. Rewilded landscapes also offer opportunities for ecotourism, recreation, and education, providing economic benefits alongside environmental gains.
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A Model for the Future

Rewilding isn’t just about restoring nature in specific areas; it’s about changing the way we interact with the land. As more rewilding projects take hold across the UK and beyond, they provide a blueprint for how we can restore ecosystems at scale, enhancing biodiversity and delivering essential ecosystem services that benefit everyone.

Rewilding offers an exciting opportunity to restore biodiversity and deliver critical ecosystem services like carbon sequestration, water regulation, and soil health. By allowing nature to take the lead, rewilding creates resilient, diverse ecosystems that support a wide range of species and provide benefits to both the environment and society. Whether through large-scale habitat restoration or smaller, targeted rewilding projects, the impact of rewilding on biodiversity and ecosystem services is profound.

As more landowners and communities embrace rewilding, we have the chance to heal damaged ecosystems, enhance biodiversity, and build landscapes that are better equipped to face the challenges of the future.

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