Nature Recovery in West Berkshire

400 years after their extinction in Britain, beavers are once again helping reduce flood risk in Cornwall. European bison now roam woodland in Kent for the first time in 6,000 years. While in the Scottish Highlands, 30,000 hectares of regenerated pinewood in the Cairngorms National Park is connecting an ever-widening web of wildlife. 

As a growing number of rewilding projects are rolled out across the UK, they are showing us the way to a greener and richer environment for everyone: restoring open spaces for wildlife to thrive and local communities to enjoy, supporting rural jobs through ecotourism, and creating permanent carbon sinks to store human-generated emissions. These projects are some of the greatest assets we have in our fight against the climate crisis, yet, we remain one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

Over the past few months, many of you have understandably contacted me about the need to bring nature back, and here in West Berkshire we can already point to real success stories. 

Through projects such as the West Berkshire Living Landscape area, our unique and diverse landscape is stretching further. By working in tandem with landowners, conservation groups, and local volunteers, over 27 kilometres of connected meadows, reedbeds, woods, and rivers now act as a safe haven for 97 threatened species while creating a crucial green corridor for residents to explore. Alongside the Linking the Landscape project completed in 2019, when nature is given the opportunity to recover, the change benefits us all.  

Undoubtedly, with just around 1% of Britain currently rewilding, there is more to do and through a series of parliamentary questions, I pressed Ministers on their commitment to nature restoration, flood management, and much-needed support for farmers as they sit at the heart of this transition. 

Encouragingly, the Government confirmed that £30 million has been directed to both the new Wildlife Rich Habitat and the Big Nature Impact Fund. While this alone won’t transform nature recovery, it pushes us in the right direction and after months of uncertainty over the Sustainable Farming Incentive, it must now translate into tangible action and long-term assurances. 

Importantly, this is not a binary choice between nature recovery and scrapping precious farmland. In fact, some of the most successful examples show the opposite. While each project is distinct, by working hand-in-hand with our world-class farmers, measures such as agroforestry and floodplain restoration can strike the balance: allowing farms to bolster home grown food production and climate resilience while leading to the regeneration of vital ecosystems.  

With more than 30,000 deaths linked to air pollution in the UK in 2025, this is just one of the many red signals flashing before our eyes. By creating healthier, more resilient landscapes, the over 1,000 rewilding projects across Britain offer us a practical vision for a more sustainable future. 

Nature has spent millions of years refining and adapting its solutions. We must now give it the best chance to safeguard the ecosystems that underpin our very existence.