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wilderculture
Wilderculture is a new integrated approach to ecological restoration and food production on our upland areas..
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Economic

Balancing the economic, social and ecological...

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Economic Sense

A holistic approach

Land management practises that support nature must also be economically viable for long term success. 

Much of the decision making on farms and estates is made from the perspective of how to maximise output. The Wilderculture Approach however focuses on building long term resilience through the regeneration of soils and maximising the solar-conversion potential of your land. 

In practice this generally involves reducing or removing high cost inputs such as fertilisers, while creating a grazing plan that maximises the output of solar-conversion potential, which also build soil fertility and therefore biodiversity. 

 

 

SOLAR ECONOMY

If we create a large enough biological bank account, it will pay us interest

In Wilderculture we work towards helping landowners derive more of their income from the solar-conversion potential of their land. This potential is commonly, vastly under-utilised because of a lack of grazing planning. 

This solar-currency represents an income that can come from the conversion of sunlight into saleable products, in a way that does not ‘mine’ the original resource. Sunlight is a free resource now and forever. 

Our belief is that if you create a functional ecosystem that is complex and robust some ‘interest’ can be taken without dipping into the ‘biological savings account.’ 

The difference between the Wilderculture approach and what went before, is that through a unique blend of holistic management, an understanding of ecology and a renaissance of pastoralist and countryside skills we can create an ecosystem that is abundant enough to provide food and energy for wildlife and humans.

 

 

 

Rewilding

Rewilding in the purest sense – removing humans from the landscape and leaving it to nature, might offer ecological benefits, but it also risks causing the further dis-integration of humans from nature. Wilderculture offers rural communities a truly viable way to continue producing food whilst rewilding the landscape.

Unsustainable

Conventional farming, forestry and shooting have historically provided a way of making the uplands economically viable, but they have commonly led to the widespread loss of our soil and biodiversity. This in effect has bankrupted the uplands.

False economy

Tourism offers a great way to ‘top up’ income, and has even greater potential when built around a regenerating wild landscape. Tourism however can be fickle and seasonal, what we aim to do with Wilderculture is create genuinely sustainable, year-round, thriving communities.

Exclusion

If land is taken out of all management there is legitimate public concern that the iconic landscape and heritage of the land will be lost and that it will be more difficult to access land for recreational activities.

 

Feed humans and wildlife

We feel it is important to produce at least some human food from the uplands. Although yields are small per acre, the contribution from this whole landmass is significant. We must acknowledge that this land provides food of a high nutrient density. To produce these nutrients on the lowlands, will require further intensification, putting enormous pressure on land systems.

Managing Change

Local people have concerns about being ‘closed in’ by forest and the loss of jobs and communities. The general population is also not ready for the reintroduction of large predators such as wolves. Wilderculture offers an approach that, rather than overwhelming people with change, will bring them on board by making them part of it. 

 

We are doing things differently

Influence not Ownership

Other organisations like us, who are trying to make a positive difference to the ecological well being of our landscape, may opt to buy land with charitable donations and take control management to achieve their preferred conservation aims.

At Wilderculture we prefer, through the demonstration of methods which achieve impressive outcomes not just ecologically but also socially and economically, to work alongside farmers and landowners. 

Much of our work focuses on training and support or project partnerships with third party landowners. With this way of working we can better leverage our skills and knowledge to impact change, hopefully across large areas of land, and become a self-funding organisation, rather than relying solely on donations.