‘Healing nature will save us from the climate crisis’ is a pretty catchy phrase, isn’t it? Whack a dollop of optimism, a dash of Gaia theory and it sounds like the kind of thing that someone might say whilst extolling the virtues of the various uses of hemp and sitting round the campfire. But be in no doubt, we are talking about hard reality when we say that, without nature, we simply can’t solve this climate crisis. Restoring nature isn’t a vague truism or nice-to-have. It isn’t anti-progress and it isn’t about going back to the past. ‘Rewilding’ our land and seas is urgent and vital. Don’t just take it from me, the president of COP26 put it like this:

If we are to limit global warming and keep the goal of 1.5C alive, then the world needs to use land sustainably and put protection and restoration of nature at the heart of all we do.

The commitments being made today show that nature and land use is being recognised as essential to meeting the Paris Agreement goals, and will contribute to addressing the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.

-Cop 26 President Alok Sharma

You can’t take proper climate action without nature

As we reported in our Guide to COP 26 and nature¹, the natural world has the incredible ability to trap and store carbon away from the atmosphere, where it currently causes us so many problems. On land we can restore forests, heathlands and grazed wildflower meadows to absorb carbon dioxide into the bodies of plants, so they can then be trampled down and stored in into the soil. Wet habitats like bogs, fens or saltmarshes can store enormous amounts of CO2 every year and seagrass meadows beneath the waves lock away greenhouse gases even faster than a rainforest!

But these carbon guzzling habitats are the places that have been first to be drained, torn up, built over and chopped down due to ignorance about their true value to the climate. If we are serious about net-zero emissions goals, we must work to restore these habitats in at least 30% of the country as a minimum. Currently we are languishing as the most nature depleted country in the G7 and in the bottom 10% in the whole world!²

Bringing back 30% of nature by 2030 would also help buffer us from the effects of climate change. Beaver dams and wild floodplains will help store water through droughts and slow down the torrents of storms that could flood our homes.³ Rewilding is a thoroughly pragmatic choice!

At COP26 a documentary was shown that demonstrates how restoring nature can help combat the crisis, featuring Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust rewilding projects in the Solent, Little Duxmore farm on the Isle of Wight and Fishlake meadows in Romsey:

Nature recovery is an investment in our future

It took us 250 years to degrade our natural world since the industrial revolution first roared to life in the UK. In the same way, it will take some time for saplings to become forests and for our coastal waters to flow thick with seagrass meadows - the true carbon storing potential of nature will take decades to realise. This means that we can’t use nature as a shortcut to net zero. As COP26 hangs in the balance and vital targets may be missed, we have to reduce our emissions now to keep alive the possibility of limiting temperature rise to 1.5^oC.

Restoring nature and rewilding the nation must start now because it is a wise, long-term investment. A deposit for our future that will compound and grow over time until we leave behind a world much better than we have today. Full of wildlife, rich in green spaces to enjoy and with carbon safely stored where it belongs. Rewilding is about making a future we can be excited about, connected to the natural world and living much wilder lives as a result!