Rewilding - another stick to bash the countryside, but what exactly is it?

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Tim Bonner writes: As recent history has taught us only too well rural politics is far too often used as a playground for those with a political agenda. Unfortunately this trend is not abating and a recent parliamentary question highlighted a relatively recent incarnation. The MP for Hammersmith, Andy Slaughter, asked the Secretary of State for Environment: "What her department's policy is on rewilding lynxes?". There are so many problems with this short query it is difficult to know where to start, but leaving aside concerns about whether Hammersmith contains the right habitat for lynxes the nub of the issue is what does 'rewilding' mean? Despite the grammatical construction we can assume that Mr Slaughter is not concerned about making lynxes that have become domesticated wild again, not least because such lynxes do not generally exist in the UK. It is fair to assume therefore that 'rewilding' is being used as a substitute for 'reintroducing' a once native species. This, in itself, might be logical if 'rewilding' was not also being used to describe a host of other activities.

As well as the reintroduction of sometimes very long extinct animal species the phrase is used to describe a range of activity including the restoration of caledonian pine forest; creation of marine protection areas and no take fishing zones; coastal realignment through managed retreats; and extensification, or indeed complete cessation, of farming in lowland areas.

There does not seem, even among its proponents, to be any single definition of 'rewilding'. It can refer to a complete withdrawal of land management practices, but generally it is used to describe a change in management practice involving the 'proactive restoration' of land, habitat and wildlife. The objective of 'rewilding' is equally difficult to define as there is uncertainty about what point in time a given environment was considered to be 'wild' and this will vary from area to another.

Worryingly, however, one of the most consistent uses of the term, or perhaps philosophy is a better description, is as an attack on current forms of land management and traditional rural communities. Whether you are a highland stalker, a hill shepherd or a coastal arable farmer 'rewilding' apparently provides an alternative, better management solution for your landscape, which does not include you.

There is always room for discussion about how we manage the countryside, but when we live in an entirely managed landscape the basic assumption of 'rewilding', that human intervention is by definition negative, is clearly nonsense. It should be perfectly possible to debate the future of the countryside without resorting to such an ill-defined and misleading term.

Follow Tim on Twitter @CA_TimB