Welcome to the latest edition of the Rewilder Weekly. 🦬🌳🐺🌞🌍

This week with the latest rewilder portrait, featuring Fabien Quétier, Head of Wilder Parks at Rewilding Europe - as well as inspiring and insightful stories from 🇦🇷 Argentina, 🇿🇦 South Africa, 🇷🇴 Romania, 🇦🇺 Australia and 🇧🇭 Bahrain.

Wishing you a good week!

Cheers,

👉 If you come across stories you’d like to see featured in a future edition of the Rewilder Weekly, send them to me and I’ll gladly do what I can.

1) Meet the Rewilders: Fabien Quétier

Meet the Rewilders is a series that introduces you to people engaged in the rewilding movement across the globe. Today meet Fabien Quetier, Head of Wilder Parks at Rewilding Europe, the man leading the Wilder Parks initiative that, by adopting rewilding principles at already 10 parks, aims to grow nature restoration efforts across Europe on an unprecedented scale.

Against the scale of destructive human endeavors, it takes a tough hide, a great deal of optimism and a good sense of humor (I think those are key traits in rewilders!) to fervently keep at it. As Fabien writes, “Rewilding is also about challenging the status-quo, and I certainly enjoy that with plenty of irony, sarcasm and cynicism to spread around! Paul Jepson calls rewilders “punk ecologists”. He may be onto something, as we’re often going against the grain of some well-established beliefs, and against often ineffective but well-established practices in nature conservation and restoration.”

An excellent Q&A with Fabien that offers a hopeful and frank account, looks back at his path, calls out false narratives and powerful adversaries, funding challenges and, in all of everything, humor and hope. But hope is not enough, he rightly says. “It’s important to demonstrate practical rewilding, and showcase how it benefits nature, climate and people. Everyone can play a part, on their land, in their community, and through civic engagement. Let’s do it!”

👉 Get to know Fabien

2) An update from Rewilding Argentina’s Sofía Heinonen

The CEO of Rewilding Argentina Sofía Heinonen takes a look back at 2025, gives an update on progress wildlife reintroductions and recovery, on ecological restoration and local development, on reinvigorating wetlands and tackling bottom trawling … all that and much more. One of the biggest new projects of last year was to go from focusing on Argentina alone, to collaborating with other countries (Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia) to restore vast nature corridors along rivers with the Jaguar Rivers Initiative.

The efforts of Rewilding Argentina are staggering, and heartening. Great to see all of this progress. Sofía writes, “Our new goal goes beyond restoring ecosystems. We now aim to establish ecological corridors along major rivers, protect and manage high-biodiversity sites in collaboration with governments, reintroduce key species, and control threats effectively. At the same time, we continue working in the surrounding landscapes with rural communities, supporting the development of restorative business models —where residents benefit directly from nature -based economies.”

👉 Go here for more

3) Ferncliffe: Restoring a damaged forest

Ferncliffe Forest Wilding in South Africa currently has 12 hectares of forest under restoration - and has a goal of going for 50 hectares by 2030. It all began in 1967 when a couple moved to a small farm near a forest called Ferncliffe and there raised their children. While that couple has passed away, the father’s dream of seeing Ferncliffe protected and restored is alive and well. The couple’s son Connor and his partner Janine have moved from Cape Town back to Ferncliffe in 2021 with the goal to bring a damaged forest - in their words, “to try and put a tiny, devastatingly beautiful slice of the world to rights.”

Aside from planting native trees, a great deal of the work is the removal of alien vegetation that smothers and displaces native plants. On their Progress page you get an excellent sense of just how much trouble invasive species are - and how much has already been achieved in just a few years. Now, the planting of trees and tackling all of that massive (in some places it was 90%) alien growth needs support. You might, for example, join them as volunteers. Go here to find more ways for you to assist them in their important work.

👉 Go here for more

4) Seven inspiring nature adventure days in Romania

The European Nature Trust’s travel supervisor Bryony Sharma journeyed to Romania and there, for seven days, joined the Romanian Coexistence Adventure in the Carpathians. These trips, organized for small groups of nature lovers by TENT and the Foundation Conservation Carpathia, all support Romania’s most ambitious nature preservation and restoration project.

To give you a sense, here’s Bryony, “At the base of the stunning rockface of Piatra Craiului stands the beautifully appointed Poiana Tamas Wilderness Camp – our accommodation in the mountains for Day 4 of our trip. Warm log fires, tea, and homemade soup brought comfort as we prepared for a night in the wilderness, surrounded by bear tracks, boar prints, and signs of European bison.” Interested? If so, you better hurry, there are only 4 spaces left for the next such adventure in September!

👉 Go here for more

5) Australia’s first ‘sea country’ Indigenous Protected Area

As most countries, Australia aiming to fulfill it’s 30x30 obligations. One way of protecting 30% of land by 2030 is by creating more IPAs (Indigenous Protected Areas). This is without a doubt a good idea - as the Karajarri people in northwestern Australia illustrate. They declared their IPA - almost 2.5 million hectares - in 2014. And they’ve moved forward with the creation of a marine and coastal ecosystems IPA that covers nearly 240’000 hectares … now those are some great numbers and the people on the ground, who have been there for many thousands of years, know better than anyone else about fruitful coexistence with nature.

Alas, when you read the Mongabay article, you’ll also read about the duplicity of the government. On one hand they support indigenous efforts with millions to protect and restore healthy ecosystems, on the other “the Australian government provides billions of dollars to the fossil fuel industry, as well as biodiversity-damaging practices in agriculture, fisheries and forestry. Around the world, governments spend some $500 billion annually on “harmful subsidies,” which the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for reforming by 2030.”

👉 Go here for more

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6) The healing beauty of rewilding

In her Nature Reclamation Substack, environmental storyteller Christina Egerstrom has penned a wonderful piece about the past of conservation and the move, over the course of the past few decades, to rewilding. Essentially from conserving specific places and species at all cost (not unlike the thinking behind a zoo or a museum), to restoring ecological processes … and then stepping back to let nature take the recovery lead. Christina explores this shift and then highlights a variety of examples of species reintroductions, from bison to lynx and beaver to wolf.

She writes, “What emerges from examining both the successes and challenges of European rewilding is a vision that is realistic about the difficulties ahead yet fundamentally optimistic about what’s possible. The goal isn’t to return Europe to some imagined pristine past—that ship sailed centuries ago. Instead, it’s about creating dynamic, self-regulating ecosystems that can adapt to changing conditions while providing space for both wildlife and people to thrive.”

👉 Go here for more

7) Mangrove forests around the world are healing

Mangrove forests are vibrant ecosystems, they host rich biodiversity, capture greenhouse gases … and they are also natural flood mitigation solutions. With health mangrove forests protecting coastlines, the dangers of storm surges, flood and wind damages are a fraction … for decades now, scientists showed that human endeavors have wounded and even destroyed such wonders of nature.

Now scientists report that mangrove forests are staging “an unexpected comeback. For decades these swampy trees had been declining rapidly as they were cleared for fish farms and housing. But a new study shows that since 2010 the world has been gaining more mangroves than it has been losing - driven by stronger legal protections and increased public awareness of their importance, sparked by disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.”

👉 Go here for more

8) Dugongs are climate heroes

Dugongs are pretty amazing creatures, often called sea cows as these gentle giants mostly munch sea grass. And just like the above-highlighted mangrove forests, dugongs, too, are climate heroes. A new study tracked a herd of 700 dugongs in the shallows off Bahrain’s coast - and discovered that they help “the seagrass around them capture more than twice as much carbon as it would without them.” It is estimated that Bahrain’s seagrass ecosystems could capture approximately 546,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually when healthy Dugong populations are present.

The ACC (Animating the Carbon Cycle) is an effort by the Yale School of the Environment and the Global Rewilding Alliance, and the dugong example is one of many to show that animals play a key role in making that happen. The aim is clear: “By reintroducing abundant populations of wild animals and fostering ecological resilience, we aim to unlock nature’s full potential to draw down legacy carbon emissions from our atmosphere.”

👉 Go here for more

To conclude this week’s edition, rewilding legend and Trees for Life founder Alan Watson Featherstone shares with us a bit of his iconic photography that often takes a look at nature in a way that’s far closer to what we ordinarily perceive in passing. Alan takes time - as we all should. Here he captured the beautiful contrast between a silver-green leaf weevil amongst the red galls induced by sycamore cherry mites.

To find out more about Alan, his public speaking, writing, photography and more, visit him at alanwatsonfeatherstone.com. And if you feel like reading about my fantastically unique day with him in Glen Affric, go here.

Glad you’re here, reading the Rewilder Weekly. Share the stories, write your own (and let me know about it), engage with others. Let’s continue to reach out, inspire and activate ever more people around the world. The rewilding movement is growing, and with all of us pitching in, it’ll grow a great deal more!

Help grow the movement - thanks! 🌞

That’s it for this week’s edition. Eager for more rewilding insights?

• get inspired by the lives, decisions, challenges, beliefs and hopes of passionate rewilders with the Meet the Rewilders portraits;

• connect with these organizations - sign up for newsletters and support them in any way you can;

• join these events - conferences, online seminars, rewilding days and weeks to immerse yourself and learn from the experts;

• read these books - a selection from Foreman to Macdonald, and from Tree to Daltun, Hetherington and Bowser;

• listen to these podcasts - it’s inevitably inspiring when the likes of Peter Cairns, James Shooter, Ben Goldsmith and Brooke Mitchell talk to the pros in the field;

• and check out these resources - explore the principles, ways of funding, research publications and personal ways to start rewilding.

And, of course, connect with and follow the many passionately engaged rewilders. Let’s keep growing the movement! 🦬🌳🐺🌞🌍

Leave a comment

Go ahead, do it! 😊 I love comments and you can ask me anything (literally). You can also let me know about projects you come across, article you think I should share - and feel free to throw in tough questions, too - spice of life!

Oh, and please do click the ❤️ (like) button, too. The more ❤️, the more these posts rise in Substack’s algorithm - which means more and more people will discover rewilding, will learn about it, will engage around it, and hopefully will become active rewilders before long. Thanks!

👋 Find Fabien on LinkedIn

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m an ‘undisciplined’ ecologist. What I do best is think outside the box, and make connections between problems and solutions, needs and opportunities, and therefore between people. Being an ecologist has taught me systems-thinking, where everything’s interconnected. Being an agronomist (Ingénieur Agronome) has taught me to be a problem-solver in a systems context. I guess I was well prepared to become a rewilder!

These are the skills, coupled with over 20 years of experience, that I’m bringing to the Wilder Parks initiative that I’m now leading at Rewilding Europe. The Wilder Parks initiative aims to bring together protected area managers that are adopting rewilding principles to restore the land and sea under their stewardship. We already have 10 parks on board, and aim to grow this network as a key mechanism to make Europe a wilder place.

Before taking on this challenge, I was very involved in Rewilding Europe’s operational landscapes, supporting our teams to deliver and showcase practical rewilding in different parts of Europe since 2021. It has been a real privilege to work alongside these hands-on rewilders, with their feet in the mud making things happen on the ground. I’m looking forward to sharing lessons learned from our landscapes with the Wilder Parks and others that share our vision for a wilder Europe.

What was your first job?

My first real job was my PhD, studying the vulnerability of traditional agricultural landscapes to global changes in Europe. I was lucky to have my case-study site in the central French Alps, where I spent most of my time working with local people and understanding the socio-economic and ecological drivers of change in the upper Romanche valley of the Ecrins National Park.

I learned a lot, and I’m proud to have helped set up a long-term ecological research site that is still running today. This experience also forged my strong personal bond with mountains, where I enjoy the feeling of wildness that comes from remoteness, and an increasingly diverse and abundant wildlife as Europe's mountains get wilder. Without wilderness, the world is a cage.

What were key decisions in your life?

There was never any doubt that I wanted to work in, with and for wild nature. How to best do that is a tougher question! In my early 20s, I decided that a PhD in ecology would open more doors, especially internationally, than a MSc in environmental and agricultural economics. I think it did, and I’m still keen on intellectual challenges, but I soon moved away from a traditional academic career. I spent 10 years in the private sector, at Biotope, advising corporations and public agencies on biodiversity management. I learned a lot by working at the nexus of biodiversity, local communities, and industrial or infrastructure projects and policies - all around the world. And I’m still learning, now that I’ve moved to the NGO sector.

What are your core beliefs/values?

That’s a tough one! From my trajectory, I guess one of my core values is to never stop learning, by engaging with new ideas, new people and new places. Rewilding Europe offers me a fantastic opportunity to do that. Rewilding isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, and requires a good understanding of each area in which we work, and strong coalitions in favor of nature recovery among local people.

Rewilding is also about challenging the status-quo, and I certainly enjoy that with plenty of irony, sarcasm and cynicism to spread around! Paul Jepson calls rewilders “punk ecologists”. He may be onto something, as we’re often going against the grain of some well-established beliefs, and against often ineffective but well-established practices in nature conservation and restoration.

What are your biggest challenges?

The biggest challenge is cultural. Europeans have been bottle-fed narratives around “cultural landscapes” that need to be carefully curated, and they suffer from acute shifting baselines syndrome. Many people believe this or that traditional land-use practice is needed to sustain threatened biodiversity. That may be true in some cases, but many so-called traditions are in fact quite recent, and our biodiversity is much impoverished relative to its potential. That’s why Rewilding Europe puts some much work into showcasing an alternative narrative where wildlife is truly abundant, and nature takes care of itself.

If you take away the nuances, rewilding is about giving more space (and time) for natural processes to play-out. In a crowded continent like Europe, finding space for rewilding is one of our biggest challenges. We face competition from powerful, well-established and often heavily subsidized sectors such as agriculture, fishing, forestry, and renewable energy as well as all the infrastructure they require. Working with these sectors is very important, whether through agri-environmental schemes, sustainable forestry practices, the mitigation hierarchy, etc. It’s not enough, however, as the adoption of these schemes and practices is often marginal or ineffective. It’s misleading to oppose land-sharing and land-sparing. We need both.

Another related challenge lies in the economics of rewilding. Most public funding for nature goes towards half-arsed measures to reduce the harm done by sectors that are often heavily subsidized. It’s quite a perverse system, although one can expect that taxpayers may one day rebel against it. There is some hope that the private-sector may find rewilding to be a valuable investment, but this hasn’t really delivered yet. Meanwhile, rewilders remain dependent on philanthropy to drive systemic change. Fundraising is one of our main challenges, so don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Who are your sources of inspiration?

I’m lucky to live in the Alps, which gives me the opportunity to spend a lot of time outdoors, in wild nature. That’s an important source of inspiration and motivation. But it’s my colleagues, from around Europe, that provide the biggest boost. They’re all forward-looking, with a can-do attitude, that I really value. It’s important to cherish this positive outlook, especially as our politics become increasingly polarized, even toxic, particularly online.

What do you hope will have happened in ten years’ time?

I’m an optimist, and I hope that some of the reactionary forces against nature recovery in Europe will have been defeated in the polls, and that their bad ideas will have been largely defeated in people’s hearts and minds. But hope isn’t enough. It’s important to demonstrate practical rewilding, and showcase how it benefits nature, climate and people. Everyone can play a part, on their land, in their community, and through civic engagement. Let’s do it!

Glad you’re here, reading the Rewilder Weekly. Share the stories, write your own (and let me know about it), engage with others. Let’s continue to reach out, inspire and activate ever more people around the world. The rewilding movement is growing, and with all of us pitching in, it’ll grow a great deal more!

Help grow the movement - thanks! 🌞

Eager for more rewilding insights?

• get inspired by the lives, decisions, challenges, beliefs and hopes of passionate rewilders with the Meet the Rewilders portraits;

• connect with these organizations - sign up for newsletters and support them in any way you can;

• join these events - conferences, online seminars, rewilding days and weeks to immerse yourself and learn from the experts;

• read these books - a selection from Foreman to Macdonald, and from Tree to Daltun, Hetherington and Bowser;

• listen to these podcasts - it’s inevitably inspiring when the likes of Peter Cairns, James Shooter, Ben Goldsmith and Brooke Mitchell talk to the pros in the field;

• and check out these resources - explore the principles, ways of funding, research publications and personal ways to start rewilding.

And, of course, connect with and follow the many passionately engaged rewilders. Let’s keep growing the movement! 🦬🌳🐺🌞🌍

Leave a comment

Go ahead, do it! 😊 I love comments and you can ask me anything (literally). You can also let me know about projects you come across, article you think I should share - and feel free to throw in tough questions, too - spice of life!

Oh, and please do click the ❤️ (like) button, too. The more ❤️, the more these posts rise in Substack’s algorithm - which means more and more people will discover rewilding, will learn about it, will engage around it, and hopefully will become active rewilders before long. Thanks!

Welcome to the latest edition of the Rewilder Weekly. 🦬🌳🐺🌞🌍

This week with the latest rewilder portrait, featuring Matt Phelps, Lead Ecologist and Science Communicator at Knepp Wildland - as well inspiring and insightful stories from 🇷🇴 Romania, 🇨🇴 Colombia, 🇮🇩 Indonesia, 🇬🇧 the UK and 🇰🇭 Cambodia.

☝️ Before we get going: Order of the Wild hosts an immersive gathering from 17-21 June in France. In their words: “Join us for this immersive gathering dedicated to transformative, nature-led experience design for humans working towards a better future for people and planet.” France in June? Sounds as fantastic as I’m sure the event will be - if you can make the time, be there!

Wishing you a good week!

Cheers,

👉 If you come across stories you’d like to see featured in a future edition of the Rewilder Weekly, send them to me and I’ll gladly do what I can.

1) Meet the Rewilders: Matt Phelps

Meet the Rewilders is a series that introduces you to people engaged in the rewilding movement across the globe. Today meet Matt Phelps, Lead Ecologist and Science Communicator at Knepp Wildland since 2024. He oversees scientific research across the project, from in-house species monitoring to coordinating visits from specialist groups and academic researchers.

With the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, I often hear that people feel overwhelmed by the challenges. And I often see that it becomes quite manageable and entirely real when connected with those dear to us. I think Matt puts that beautifully with regard to his daughter:

“I feel very driven to do the work I do because I passionately believe in our ability to restore the damage we have done to the living world if we put our hearts and minds into it. Becoming a parent in recent years has made me more committed than ever to trying to nurture a world that is wilder than the one I myself grew up in. I want my daughter to experience all the wonder that I had (and still have) with the natural world as she is growing up, but with the added excitement of previously lost species and landscapes that were unimaginable in my own childhood. It’s just wonderful to me that she already knows about beavers!”

👉 Get to know Matt

2) Three ambassadors for Romania’s magnificent bison

The European bison was one gone from Romania. Today, roaming freely in the Southern Carpathian forests and valleys, are 250 bison. Rewilding Europe reports that more than half of them were born in the wild. Now three ambassadors have been chosen to use their voices, experiences and platforms to help “raise awareness of rewilding and its beneficial impact, and to strengthen the bonds between people, communities, and wild nature.”

The ambassadors are Romanian actress and filmmaker Dana Rogoz (she will help share the story of the bison’s return with her fans and followers and encourage people to reconnect with nature). Regenerative farmer and anthropologist Roxana Zaha brings a strong focus on living and working in harmony with nature, promoting farming approaches that support biodiversity and ecological balance. And biologist, explorer, and university lecturer Alexandru Stermin has dedicated much of his career to deepening understanding of the relationship between humans and the natural world.

👉 Go here for more

3) Akae Conservancy protects Colombia’s Wild Orinoquía

Ever more organizations join the Global Rewilding Alliance - by now the GRA brings together over 300 alliance partners from 124 countries - and these, together, account for nature protection and restoration efforts of a whopping 2.2 million square kilometers of land, and 5 million square kilometers of sea. A new alliance partner, portrayed by the GRA, is Akae Conservancy, a family stewardship of massive proportions in Colombia.

Akae Conservancy is powered by family, by a belief that we all have a responsibility to nature and future generations - and one that is very much also about local communities. What was once a cattle ranch, is not 20’000 hectares of increasingly wild ecosystems. The width and breadth of wildlife is amazing. From the above-pictured tayra, to ocelot, tapir, puma, giant anteater, march deer, Orinoco goose, giant armadillo, squirrel cuckoo, etc. etc. etc.!

In the article, GRA puts a focus on family, writing that: “Rewilding often begins with families who make the pivotal choice about the future of their land. These family-led efforts are a growing and powerful part of the rewilding movement, rooted in love, heritage and a willingness to resist short term pressures in favor of long term renewal. Family stewardship offers something rare, the ability to protect the land through generations regardless of shifting politics or funding streams.” Well put!

👉 Go here for more

4) Could the Tauros help rewild the UK?

In the latest podcast from At the Edge, Peter Cairns meets the pioneering Grazelands Rewilding team, and their hugely impressive Tauros cattle that roam De Maashorst nature reserve in The Netherlands. In prehistoric times, the majestic aurochs roamed from Western Europe and North Africa, to the Indian subcontinent and East Asia. It has long gone extinct, but remains with us in the form of fossils, cave paintings … and now the back-bred Tauros.

Grazelands Rewilding has used scientific methods to breed an animal that isn’t an aurochs as such, but is very close to it, both visually and behaviorally. Today, there are more than 800 Tauros cattle shaping woodlands and grasslands across Europe. In the podcast, Pete asks whether these powerful herbivores could do the same in the UK and if not, what are the social and cultural factors standing in the way?

👉 Go here for more

5) How local practitioners restore Bali’s coral reefs

Livingseas Foundation makes it clear that they are not scientists - they are practitioners, the are dive instructors, divers and coastal communities who have seen marine ecosystems suffers - and have chosen to not just rein in destruction by refuse, but to rebuild reefs. When you look at the images of the before and after - it’s amazing. Within just a few years, where there was nothing left, now there are new coral reefs, teeming with life.

By now they have deployed nearly 10’000 reef structures, planted over 400’000 coral fragments - and are seeing nearly 10’000 square meters of seabed revitalized. What they do in addition may be even more important - their community outreach and educational efforts help create the future generations that care and understand and will want to continue to do whatever is in their power to keep and increase healthy seabeds around Bali.

👉 Go here for more

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6) These structures protect against bottom-trawling - and create new habitats

I’ve written about the work of Marine Conservation Cambodia before - and it’s great to report on progress. What you see in the above image are concrete structures that are 2-3 tons heavy. They are assembled from separate - manageable - pieces on the seabed. When finished, these octagonal havens for wildlife are so heavy that bottom trawlers a) cannot move them and b) destroy their nets. Oceanographic reports that by now an amazing 1’250 such structures have been deployed.

The efforts so far took two years - and in total they aim for 5’000 such structures. The results are already abundantly obvious: there are fewer trawlers and more fish, squid and crabs. These structures provide sealife with shelter, act as new habitats and as important nurseries. In the end - and without the utterly destructive bottom trawling - everybody wins. Fish abundance has risen six-fold. And increased fish stock then of course also greatly benefits local fishers who had seen their livelihoods more and more endangered by bottom trawlers.

👉 Go here for more

7) River Wye granted rights in UK first

The Guardian reports that “the entire catchment of the River Wye has been formally recognised as a living ecosystem with intrinsic rights in a charter, a UK first that campaigners hope will help save the highly polluted river.” Two county councils have already implemented the charter, two more are expected to adopt it soon - once that has happened, the entirely of the River Wye - 130 miles - will be covered.

Traditionally, nature has always been a resource, someone’s property, an object to be used as our species saw fit. It’s great to read that lawyers for nature are winning cases across the globe, turning nature from object into subject, into entities with inherent rights. According to the article, the UK’s House of Lords is considering a proposal by Natalie Bennett that would do just that.

👉 Go here for more

8) Poland’s people stand up against the excesses of the hobby-hunting lobby

☝️ You may wonder why, in a forum about rewilding, I occasionally write about the world of shooting estates and hobby-hunters. The thing is that rewilding and leisure hunting are clearly pulling in opposite directions. Rewilding is about a new balance between humanity and nature, and it is very much about a lived respect and care for nature … and that, of course, includes animals. Whereas shooting estates and hobby-hunting are, regardless of what smokescreens are put up for us, about an intentionally maintained imbalance for the purpose of exercising their passion for killing animals.

A new initiative in Poland makes it clear that it is not against recreational hunting - but wants to addresses certain excesses for the benefit of all Polish citizens. It’s a smart way forward. They aim to strengthen private property laws, push for laws to protect children, to ban the trophy-hunting killing industry (rampant in Poland), etc. This is great stuff that could and should be replicated in every European country. This way of going about it makes it clear that it is not against hobby hunting - but entirely PRO POLES.

👉 Go here for more

To conclude this week’s edition, rewilding legend and Trees for Life founder Alan Watson Featherstone shares with us a bit of his iconic photography that often takes a look at nature in a way that’s far closer to what we ordinarily perceive in passing. Alan takes time - as we all should.

To find out more about Alan, his public speaking, writing, photography and more, visit him at alanwatsonfeatherstone.com. And if you feel like reading about my fantastically unique day with him in Glen Affric, go here.

Glad you’re here, reading the Rewilder Weekly. Share the stories, write your own (and let me know about it), engage with others. Let’s continue to reach out, inspire and activate ever more people around the world. The rewilding movement is growing, and with all of us pitching in, it’ll grow a great deal more!

Help grow the movement - thanks! 🌞

That’s it for this week’s edition. Eager for more rewilding insights?

• get inspired by the lives, decisions, challenges, beliefs and hopes of passionate rewilders with the Meet the Rewilders portraits;

• connect with these organizations - sign up for newsletters and support them in any way you can;

• join these events - conferences, online seminars, rewilding days and weeks to immerse yourself and learn from the experts;

• read these books - a selection from Foreman to Macdonald, and from Tree to Daltun, Hetherington and Bowser;

• listen to these podcasts - it’s inevitably inspiring when the likes of Peter Cairns, James Shooter, Ben Goldsmith and Brooke Mitchell talk to the pros in the field;

• and check out these resources - explore the principles, ways of funding, research publications and personal ways to start rewilding.

And, of course, connect with and follow the many passionately engaged rewilders. Let’s keep growing the movement! 🦬🌳🐺🌞🌍

Leave a comment

Go ahead, do it! 😊 I love comments and you can ask me anything (literally). You can also let me know about projects you come across, article you think I should share - and feel free to throw in tough questions, too - spice of life!

Oh, and please do click the ❤️ (like) button, too. The more ❤️, the more these posts rise in Substack’s algorithm - which means more and more people will discover rewilding, will learn about it, will engage around it, and hopefully will become active rewilders before long. Thanks!

👋 Find Matt on LinkedIn

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Matt Phelps and I have been the Lead Ecologist and Science Communicator at Knepp Wildland in West Sussex, England, since 2024. I oversee the scientific research across the project, from in-house species monitoring to coordinating visits from specialist groups and academic researchers.

Part of my role also encompasses the public engagement side of things through delivering guided safaris and contributing to social and print media content about the wilding project. It’s honestly a dream come true to be working at this pioneering place, having made it my ambition when I first visited a decade ago.

What was your first job?

I had various part time jobs through my college years, but my first proper full-time job was working as an estate warden at the agricultural college in Surrey at which I had previously been a student. I absolutely loved my time there and it really whet my appetite for a career spent working close to the natural world.

It also meant I gained extensive experience driving all manner of tractors and other off-road vehicles long before I ever drove a car on the road – which was quite a shock for my driving instructor when I did eventually begin taking lessons!

What were key decisions in your life?

I think the most important one was realising quite early on that I really wanted to have a primarily outdoor job. I was heading down a very different path with my career in my late teens and early twenties but made the decision to retrain in ecology and countryside management at the perfect time.

Ten years or so into my career I ‘discovered’ rewilding and decided immediately that this was the direction I wanted to head in, having previously been more focused on practical land management for wildlife.

What are your core beliefs/values?

I have a strong sense of justice and of the need to right past wrongs. I feel very driven to do the work I do because I passionately believe in our ability to restore the damage we have done to the living world if we put our hearts and minds into it. Becoming a parent in recent years has made me more committed than ever to trying to nurture a world that is wilder than the one I myself grew up in.

I want my daughter to experience all the wonder that I had (and still have) with the natural world as she is growing up, but with the added excitement of previously lost species and landscapes that were unimaginable in my own childhood. It’s just wonderful to me that she already knows about beavers!

What are your biggest challenges?

I would say the biggest one is just simply staying positive and motivated, day to day. I am very lucky to be working in the rewilding sector at such a laudable location as Knepp, which helps enormously with promoting that sense of optimism and urgency, but even so, some days can be harder than others, especially when one spends too long reading the news!

The global challenges we are all facing as a species – namely climate breakdown and biodiversity collapse – are understandably terrifying and can seem insurmountable, but they won’t be fixed unless good people continue to stand up and take action.

Who are your sources of inspiration?

There are so many, to be honest. I would say my father in the first instance, for planting the seed of my fascination with the natural world when I was a boy. This was then nurtured further by my involvement in local conservation volunteering groups and some of my best teachers and lecturers in college.

From a rewilding point of view, the single biggest transformative moments came when I first read Feral by George Monbiot about 13 years ago, which just blew my previous ideas of land management out of the water. As a result of reading about it in that book I subsequently visited Knepp for the first time, where I met Penny Green (the previous Knepp Lead Ecologist) and, ultimately, Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree. It’s a constant source of inspiration and hope to me to see how quickly the biodiversity of this patch of southern England has been turned around in just two decades.

What makes you happy and what makes you angry?

What makes me happiest of all is spending time in nature, particularly the first sunny, warm days of spring, seeing the first butterflies and noting the arrival of various migrant birds. It’s such a wonderful time of hope. Also being around like-minded people, sharing our passion and enthusiasm for nature recovery and the simple appreciation of wildlife.

The opposite of all of the above is what angers me the most: injustice, selfishness, disrespect. People causing harm and damage to wildlife and the natural world in general. We have created a world, particularly in the UK, where there seems to be so little space left for nature, so when I see for example a patch of land being cleared for development, or even someone just clearing a garden to make way for astroturf and decking, my heart always sinks a bit. I feel this sense of us all needing to come together to restore biodiversity at scale, and every time I see someone doing the opposite I feel this little pang of loss and grief at an opportunity missed.

What’s your favorite place in the world and why?

West Coast National Park in South Africa in springtime is just breathtaking. My wife is originally from the Eastern Cape and I am lucky enough to have been out there several times with her. I can’t claim to have travelled to all corners of the Earth, but the scale of intact biodiversity in Africa is just magnificent to see and experience: herds of zebras roaming through thousands of acres of brightly coloured grasslands in full bloom, with flocks of flamingos, egrets and waders all around. It’s just incredible.

What are your daily rituals or practices?

I simply have to spend time outdoors every single day, preferably early in the morning. I always struggle in the winter as the nights are so long for months on end here in England. Come the spring, I will usually be up and about before 6AM most days and try and get a bit of walking and/or wildlife watching in before the rest of my family are awake. It really sets me up for the rest of the day, whatever else might come my way!

What do you hope will have happened in ten years’ time?

I hope that my daughter will have grown up in a world that is becoming progressively wilder. A world that is rich in natural wonders, and one in which people have learned to understand and respect a healthy environment as utterly essential to our survival and wellbeing, rather than simply being a ‘nice to have’. And when I say ‘people’, I specifically mean people in power.

I think a lot of people in general already understand this, but a lot of politicians grossly underestimate just how much it means to the average person to be able to spend time in nature and have access to clean air and clean water. There’s a really unwelcome but popular political narrative at the moment that nature is somehow an obstacle to progress, but I firmly believe it is a human right to be able to connect with wildness and one I hope we all have the opportunity to experience for generations to come.

Glad you’re here, reading the Rewilder Weekly. Share the stories, write your own (and let me know about it), engage with others. Let’s continue to reach out, inspire and activate ever more people around the world. The rewilding movement is growing, and with all of us pitching in, it’ll grow a great deal more!

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• get inspired by the lives, decisions, challenges, beliefs and hopes of passionate rewilders with the Meet the Rewilders portraits;

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• join these events - conferences, online seminars, rewilding days and weeks to immerse yourself and learn from the experts;

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• listen to these podcasts - it’s inevitably inspiring when the likes of James Shooter, Ben Goldsmith and Brooke Mitchell talk to the pros in the field;

• and check out these resources - explore the principles, ways of funding, research publications and personal ways to start rewilding.

And, of course, connect with and follow the many passionately engaged rewilders. Let’s keep growing the movement! 🦬🌳🐺🌞🌍

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