num_pages: 468
description: Rebirding takes the long view of Britains wildlife decline from the early taming of our landscape and its long-lost elephants and rhinos to fenland drainage the removal of cornerstone species such as wild cattle horses beavers and boar  and forward in time to the intensification of our modern landscapes and the collapse of invertebrate populations.It looks at key reasons why species are vanishing as our landscapes become ever more tamed and less diverse with wildlife trapped in tiny pockets of habitat. It explores how Britain has uniquely relied on modifying farmland rather than restoring ecosystems in a failing attempt to halt wildlife decline. The irony is that 94% of Britain is not built upon at all. And with more nature-loving voices than any European country we should in fact have the best not the most impoverished wildlife on our continent. Especially when the rural economics of our game estates and upland farms are among the worst in Europe.Britain is blessed with all the space it needs for an epic wildlife recovery. The deer estates of the Scottish Highlands are twice the size of Yellowstone National Park. Snowdonia is larger than the Maasai Mara. The problem in Britain is not a lack of space. It is that our precious space is uniquely wasted  not only for wildlife but for peoples jobs and rural futures too.Rebirding maps out how we might finally turn things around: rewilding our national parks restoring natural ecosystems and allowing our wildlife a far richer future. In doing so an entirely new sector of rural jobs would be created; finally bringing Britains dying rural landscapes and failing economies back to life.
language: English
title: Rebirding: Rewilding Britain and its Birds
publisher: Pelagic Publishing