Not many people think of the marine environment when considering rewilding; however, like the terrestrial environment, this is being severely depleted through, for example, excessive trawling on the seabed, and requires restoration. Developers working in the marine environment, such as on offshore wind farms, ports or undersea cables, will also need to offset the impacts of their activities. RSK Wilding can work with these developers to ensure that marine reserves are created to enable marine habitats and fish and shellfish populations to recover.
→ The shallow waters around much of our coast lend themselves perfectly to the creation of seagrass beds. This could be a game changer both for carbon sequestration and marine biodiversity restoration.
→ As sea levels rise, coastal areas will be at increased risk of flooding; rather than building hard defences, we can use the concept of managed retreat, whereby coastal farmland is allowed to flood, to provide a more sustainable solution.
→ Rewilding sites based around managed retreat will not only provide flood mitigation and protection, but will also enable the restoration of threatened habitats such as saltmarsh and mudflats, with knock-on benefits for wildfowl, carbon sequestration, eco-tourism, etc.
