Why people, not trees, are the key to rebuilding success

This story was originally published by The Guardian and appears here as part of the Climate Table collaboration.

A hunter, conservationist, and psychologist are working on a rebuilding project. It sounds like the beginning of a joke, although the antics of this unlikely trio have ended not in an auction, but in one of the UK’s largest land restoration projects.

They have been collaborating on the Affric Highlands Outline, which covers a variety of forests, bogs, mountainous, riverine and coastal habitats between the west coast of Scotland and Loch Ness. The goal of the project, announced this week, is to regenerate half a million acres (200,000 hectares) of land, rebuilding the people who live on it.

Conservation manager Alan McDonnell, who works for the rewilding charity Trees for life, has been leading the project, formerly known as East wild west. He has spent more than two years getting land managers, animal stalkers, millionaires and farm hands to sit around a table and talk about how to bring wildlife to land. “We wanted to talk to as many people as possible before we made it public so people wouldn’t feel pressured to be a part of it,” McDonnell says.

Reconstruction is often perceived as an attempt to get people, particularly farmers, off the land. In many rural communities, speaking of regeneration has a similar response to insulting someone’s mother. “For some people, just the Trees for Life badge, or the word ‘rewilding,’ means that’s it … I may be here talking to you, but we’re not really having a conversation,” says McDonnell, who called to psychologist Paul Howell for help.

What people are reading

I meet Howell at the Dundreggan estate, where work is underway to build a state-of-the-art recreation center with 40-bed accommodations, event spaces, classrooms, and a cafeteria.

Howell says that conservationists and rewilders often think they can convert people to their point of view using a science-based approach, a “campaign and crusader mentality.” This alienates people and makes them do the opposite of what you want, he says. “Science has information that is profoundly useful. But using that to threaten people and hit them over the head won’t get them where they want to go.

“If you exclude the people you need to connect with and influence, then you are in a kind of delusional bubble that you are right and they are wrong,” he says. “You don’t know enough about them. Until you have developed the maturity to listen to people, and genuinely listen, not listen until they stop talking and then tell them what to do, you are delusional. “

Howell says he didn’t want to be a “secret weapon” for McDonnell’s team. His client was Scottish wildlife, and if he could facilitate the conversations that led to ecological restoration, that was a “done job” for him. If the rewilders are truly aligned with the landscape, they will seek every possible opportunity to interact with the people entwined with it, Howell believes.

He told McDonnell that instead of seeing Trees for Life as an organization that can plant trees, he had to plant a vision for rebuilding communities. Talking about rewilding should be like “dating” in the sense that you approach someone with genuine curiosity and a desire to understand how they feel and think, she says.

Howell welcomes conflict in meetings because it is meaningful, fruitful, and makes things happen. When people are aggressive towards McDonnell, Howell tells him to get their number and have a cup of tea with them, look around their farm and understand their point of view. “That is a radically different attitude. I really believe that it is not passive, it demands more from an individual in terms of creativity and maturity … it is a real kind of authentic commitment to something bigger than himself.

“I don’t think it’s comforting the way most people think about rewilding, I think it’s truly visionary,” says Howell, who is optimistic about how much this project will accomplish. McDonnell already has about 25 percent of the land managed by people who have signed up for the Affric Highlands project and the hope is that more will join in after its official launch. The UK’s largest restoration project is Cairngorms connection, which covers 64,000 hectares (158,000 acres).

Later that day, I am sitting in a house on a hill. It belongs to Pete Smith, a hunter who worked in oil for 40 years. McDonnell asked Smith to speak to naturally skeptical hunting and fishing communities about how Affric Highlands could help them.

Smith has no interest in rewilding if it means fewer people. What you want is these landscapes full of young families, the way they used to be. He was initially skeptical about reconstruction, but sees it as a leveling mechanism and a way to tackle rural poverty on a large scale.

“The economic consequences of reconstruction could be that we have a lot more people working in rural areas, living sustainable lives, it all becomes a virtuous circle,” he says. TO recent report from Rewilding Britain found that rebuilding 5 percent of England could create nearly 20,000 rural jobs, increasing employment by 50 percent compared to intensive farming.

Smith also wants to be able to catch healthy fish and deer. “Conservation is a big part of anyone serious about fishing and hunting, or a deer hunter. There’s a lot of work involved in that, and you hardly see it … If you have to spend all day scraping to catch a minnow, or a skinny little deer that you’re stalking, that’s not the best. “

Planting trees along rivers creates better habitat for young fish and a more nutrient-rich river that can accommodate larger fish, which would be better for angling companies. People who want to hunt larger, healthier deer that live in a more forested landscape should support this project, Smith says.

The reintroduction of wolves and lynxes is not mentioned because it creates unnecessary conflict and is a simplification of what rebuilding is all about. This project is about the land and maximizing the amount of nature it can support, with the creation of jobs, tourism, natural capital, and the ability to monetize that. It’s also about improving the habitat for existing native species, including mountain hares, otters, ospreys, and short-eared owls.

“You might look at these people and think they are unlikely partners,” McDonnell says. “And we’re saying, despite that vague, unarticulated gap between us, there’s actually energy there, and that’s something we could get out of that. There are many ways we can make better use of the land and increase what it has to offer. “

Green initiatives are getting more and more funding, and this is another way McDonnell encourages people to get involved. Those who wish to plant trees can obtain financing for carbon offset units, and if they plant trees on agricultural land, they obtain additional financing through the forest carbon code. The Scottish government has a £ 250 million 10 year package finance peatland restoration, with the goal of restoring 250,000 hectares by 2030.

McDonnell wants to educate people about opportunities to attract funds, while also addressing climate and natural emergencies. He believes that people who work in tourism or sell agricultural products could have an Affric Highlands logo to show that they are part of the initiative.

Large reconstruction projects have failed in the past due to a breakdown in communication between groups with different interests. Funders backing £ 3.4m Wales Summit to the Sea reconstruction project withdrawn due to insufficient focus on the interests of the local population. Rewilding Britain later withdrew, saying there should have been better communication that it is “community owned and run.”

Elsewhere in Northumberland, efforts to reintroduce the lynx have also stalled, with the National Farmers Union complaining that the concerns of farmers and local people were not taken into account. The government wildlife body, Natural England, says only plans that consider socio-economic impacts will be approved.

Howell believes this restoration project will be different because he is working with communities in a deep way, not just to check a box.

“Affric Highlands won’t be a big fuss with a lot of money, and then you’ll never hear from it again,” he says. “It will be a regenerative process that will start from the communities.”