Journalist and former lawyer Millie Kerr explores the beauty and challenge of rewilding in this compelling and occasionally personal book
Review by Elizabeth Wainwright
In Wilder, journalist and former lawyer Millie Kerr explores the innovations, practicalities and possibilities of rewilding around the world.
While conservation seeks to preserve the natural world, rewilding seeks to restore entire ecosystems by letting land recover or by actively reintroducing lost species. Thus far, most rewilding discussions have focused on projects in the UK, the USA and Europe, but Kerr’s book steps off that beaten path, exploring the return of jaguars to an Argentinian national park, the first ever pangolin reintroduction project in South Africa and how giant tortoises are aiding ecosystem recovery in the Galápagos islands.
The term rewilding itself can be a barrier for some; as Kerr mentions in a footnote, conservationists sometimes avoid using it. In the UK, the concept seems to have become part of the oversimplified ‘farmers versus environmentalists’ culture wars or, at worst, part of a greenwashed land grab for big businesses keen to offset carbon emissions. But rewilding isn’t just about tree planting; Wilder explores more nuanced expressions of ecological restoration, including species reintroductions in the Global South and in countries affected by conflict, adding much-needed perspective to the discussion.
The beauty and challenge of rewilding is that it can mean different things to different people, but ‘the diversity of approach and perspective that defines the practice of rewilding likewise applies to how we contribute to environmental protection,’ Kerr concludes. Just as each species has its niche, so we too can – and must – find our own way into rewilding ourselves and the world around us. This book is a compelling and at times personal guidebook for that journey.
