About Rewilding

Community Rewilding Guide
This page is part of the Community Rewilding Guide, a resource for local groups working to restore nature. Back to guide contents page.

What is rewilding?

Put simply, rewilding is any activity that aims to restore natural processes.

Natural processes are the interactions that shape our planet and support life. Natural processes can happen on a large scale, such as the movement of a flowing river or soil forming. They can also happen on a small scale, like a bee or a butterfly pollinating the flowers in your garden. The weather, geological processes, chemical processes and the interaction of different species can all drive natural processes. Predators like eagles or wildcats influence the numbers and behaviour of other species, while species like beavers or maerl (coral) change the land and sea around them. 

A healthy ecosystem is one where natural processes are working properly. 

Across Scotland, natural processes have been interrupted, damaged or halted. If you can restore these natural processes, nature can begin to restore itself. By creating healthy ecosystems and living in balance with nature, you create benefits for humans too. We all rely on nature for water, food and air as well as our own health and wellbeing.

Rewilding asks us to take bold, transformative steps to restore nature to the point where it can begin to take care of itself - and us - again. 

What does rewilding look like?

Rewilding Britain has produced a Rewilding Journeys document, which defines five levels of rewilding – from ‘Restoration activities kickstart recovery’ to ‘Nature takes care of itself, with natural processes restored.’ Communities have an essential role in each level. See the spectrum of rewilding at Rewilding Journeys.

Rewilding activities might include:

  • Protecting, expanding and connecting natural woodland
  • Reducing grazing pressure to help trees grow
  • Removing fishing pressure on marine habitats
  • Restoring wetlands, including through beaver reintroduction
  • Helping to bring back missing species to restore missing processes
  • Planting seagrass or restoring oysters to repair marine ecosystems
  • Restoring the free movement of rivers, through removing dams or reconnecting them with floodplains
  • Connecting up local habitats, allowing wildlife to move more freely
  • Allocating larger areas for nature
  • Creating smaller wildlife-friendly areas and joining them up

Principles for rewilding

SCOTLAND: The Big Picture has set out nine principles for rewilding that are specific to Scotland (The “Northwoods Nine”). More information here.

← Back: Welcome to this guide Contents Next: Communities and Rewilding →

What do communities think about rewilding?

  • "We tend to say ‘restoring nature’ as it’s a catch-all that people can understand at any scale." 
  • "Our name is based on rewilding! The ‘wilding’ bit is the fun bit. Getting to or getting back, rediscovering the magic of having life around."
  • "For me rewilding is a synonym for nature restoration."
  • "Restoration, rewilding, recovery, biodiversity: each of those words comes with preconceived notions. We’re asking the community first: ‘When I say restoration, what do you think?’"
  • "We need to reclaim rewilding and be really clear about what it is - there has been a concerted effort to make the word scary and we need to reclaim it."
  • "There’s a danger of focusing on large scale - but lots of small scale adds up to large scale!"
  • "I’m very keen to push forward the idea that habitats and humans are very much intertwined. Doesn’t matter that we are there, and using the land. That is part of what creates a habitat. You can be using the land and bring back biodiversity."
  • "We do a form of passive restoration, remove pressures and allow the environment to recover. So for us, no preconceived notions of what would happen, we were just letting nature recover. What we have been doing is an ecosystem-based approach to monitoring, not species-specific, but rather focusing on lots of indicators to give you an idea of ecosystem health."

Connect with us:

Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter

Get in touch: info@rewild.scot

The Scottish Wildlife Alliance

We are grateful to SCOTLAND: The Big Picture for the images on this website.

Sign up to our mailing list

All images are subject to copyright. Copyright © 2025 The Scottish Rewilding Alliance, all rights reserved.