Wildlife & Rewilding
Beavers • Boar • Lynx • Wolves
Native Species Only • Breed and Release • Coexist with Farming
Birds • Amphibians • Marine Recovery • Ancient Woodland
The Commitment
Long-term and phased. Beavers and boar first, then lynx. Wolves follow in remote areas as soon as predator-proof fencing has been fitted. Every release needs landowner consent, and every verified loss is paid in full within 28 days: livestock at full market value plus breeding value, and crop, orchard and land damage at full replacement cost.
The Principle
Britain was not always a manicured island of sheep pasture and managed woodland. It was wild. Wolves hunted in the forests of England until the 1500s and Scotland until the 1700s. Brown bears roamed until around 1000AD. Lynx stalked deer in the Yorkshire Dales until at least the 500s. Wild boar dug through ancient woodland. Beavers built dams on every river. Eagles, cranes, ospreys, and dozens of other species that are now rare or absent were common. The land was alive in ways that no living person has ever seen.
These species were not lost to natural extinction. They were hunted, trapped, poisoned, and driven out by human activity. The ecosystems they sustained did not disappear — they degraded. Without wolves, deer populations exploded and destroyed woodland regeneration. Without beavers, rivers lost their natural flood management. Without lynx, roe deer stripped the understorey. Without boar, the forest floor lost its natural disturbance cycle. Every missing species left a hole, and the landscape has been slowly collapsing into those holes for centuries.
BUILD will put them back. Every species that was native to Britain and can viably be reintroduced will be bred, prepared, and released under a managed rewilding programme. Not theoretical. Not studied for another decade. Bred and released in phases — beavers and boar first, then lynx, then wolves once the fencing is in — with the infrastructure to make coexistence work.
We did not inherit this land from our ancestors. We borrowed it from the species we drove out. BUILD will return what was taken.
Pillar 1: Apex Predators
The headline species. The ones that will generate debate, controversy, and fear. And the ones whose return will transform the landscape more profoundly than any conservation programme in British history. They follow the beavers and boar of Pillar 2: lynx first, then wolves once the fencing is up. None is released until the landowners have agreed.
1.1 — Lynx
Eurasian lynx were native to Britain until approximately 700AD. They are solitary, elusive ambush predators that primarily hunt roe deer — the species most responsible for preventing woodland regeneration. A viable lynx population would naturally manage deer numbers in forested areas, reducing the need for culling programmes and allowing natural woodland recovery.
This is not a new idea, and BUILD is not starting from scratch. The Lynx UK Trust applied to release lynx in Kielder Forest, Northumberland, and the Environment Secretary refused the application in 2018. The proposal did not end there: projects for Northumberland and the Scottish Highlands have carried the case forward since, with ecological studies and consultations with farmers and local people. BUILD will build on that work rather than repeat it.
Lynx are not dangerous to humans. There is not a single verified fatal attack on a human by a Eurasian lynx in modern European history. They are forest-dwelling, avoid open ground, and are rarely seen even in countries where they are common. Their reintroduction is lower-risk than wolves, so lynx come first, ahead of the wolf programme, on the same terms — landowner consent first, and full market value plus breeding value within 28 days for any verified livestock loss — with initial releases in large forested areas in Scotland and northern England.
1.2 — Wolves
Grey wolves were native to Britain for thousands of years. They were hunted to extinction in England by the 1500s and in Scotland by the 1700s. Their absence has had cascading ecological consequences: without predation pressure, deer populations have exploded to an estimated 2 million in the UK, causing catastrophic damage to woodland, preventing natural forest regeneration, and costing the forestry industry millions per year.
BUILD will establish a wolf reintroduction programme, beginning in remote, sparsely populated areas of the Scottish Highlands and northern England where large wilderness areas can support viable packs. Wolves can be released there safely now — as soon as wolf-proof fencing has been fitted to every adjacent farm boundary and the landowners have given their consent. As populations establish and monitoring confirms successful adaptation, wolves will be released into larger designated territories with managed corridors connecting habitat areas.
Coexistence with Farming
The Farming & Agriculture Charter protects the right to farm. The Wildlife & Rewilding Charter protects the right of native species to exist. These rights coexist through infrastructure, not conflict. Every farm boundary adjacent to a wolf territory will be fitted with wolf-proof fencing: minimum 2-metre height, buried barrier extending at least 50cm below ground to prevent digging, with electrified top wire as a deterrent. The cost of fencing is funded by the rewilding programme, not by the farmer. No release goes ahead until the fencing is fitted and the landowners bordering the release area have consented.
A compensation scheme, administered by the Regional Farmer Alliances, will provide immediate, full-value compensation for any verified livestock loss to wolves. Full market value plus breeding value, paid within 28 days. The farmer does not absorb the cost. The rewilding programme absorbs the cost. If wolves and farming are to coexist, the farmer must not bear the financial risk of that coexistence.
1.3 — Brown Bears
Brown bears were native to Britain until approximately 1000AD. They are large, omnivorous, and generally avoid human contact unless provoked. Bear reintroduction is a distant aspiration, not part of the phased programme — requiring larger habitat areas, more extensive public education, and more complex coexistence infrastructure than wolves. BUILD will commission a feasibility programme for brown bear reintroduction in the Scottish Highlands, beginning with enclosed rewilding estates and progressing to managed free-roaming populations as the evidence base develops.
Pillar 2: Ecosystem Engineers
2.1 — Beavers
Beavers are already coming back — wild on the River Otter in Devon and the Tay in Scotland, and since 2025 released under licence into the wild in England, starting at Purbeck in Dorset. BUILD will expand this to a full national beaver reintroduction programme on every viable river system in England and Scotland.
Beavers are ecosystem engineers. Their dams create wetland habitats, slow water flow (reducing downstream flooding), filter sediment and pollutants, raise water tables, and create pools that support fish, amphibians, insects, and bird populations. A single beaver family transforms a river corridor into a biodiverse wetland within a few years. This connects directly to the Water Charter’s flood management objectives and the Climate Charter’s carbon capture programme (wetlands are among the most effective carbon sinks on the planet).
Where beaver activity conflicts with agricultural land management, the Regional Farmer Alliances will work with the rewilding programme to install flow devices that maintain water levels without flooding farmland. Where farmland is flooded or crops are lost all the same, the damage is paid at full replacement cost within 28 days. Coexistence is engineered, not argued about.
2.2 — Wild Boar
Wild boar are already semi-wild in the Forest of Dean and parts of Sussex, having escaped from farms in the 1990s. They are native to Britain, having been present for thousands of years before being hunted to extinction. BUILD will formally recognise wild boar as a native species, protect existing populations, and support managed expansion into suitable woodland habitat.
Boar are natural woodland managers. Their rooting behaviour disturbs the soil, creates seed beds for tree regeneration, controls bracken and bramble, recycles nutrients, and creates habitat for invertebrates, amphibians, and ground-nesting birds. A forest with boar regenerates naturally. A forest without boar stagnates under a carpet of undisturbed leaf litter.
Crop and Land Damage
Boar are not harmless to everyone. Where they already roam, arable farmers lose crops, and rooting tears up grassland, field margins and orchard floors. The compensation scheme, administered by the Regional Farmer Alliances, covers all of it: crops eaten or trampled, orchards and fruit damaged, grassland and land torn up by rooting, and fences broken. Losses are paid at full replacement cost, including the cost of reinstating the land, within 28 days. Arable and fruit growers do not carry the cost of boar any more than livestock farmers carry the cost of wolves. Expansion into new woodland is planned with the neighbouring farms, and boar-proof fencing is funded by the rewilding programme where crops are at risk.
Pillar 3: Birds
Britain has already demonstrated that bird reintroduction works. Red kites, driven to a handful of breeding pairs in Wales by the 1930s, now number in the thousands across England following a reintroduction programme that began in 1989. White-tailed eagles are establishing on the Isle of Wight and in Scotland. Ospreys are spreading south from Scottish strongholds. Cranes are breeding in the Somerset Levels for the first time in centuries.
BUILD will expand and accelerate bird recovery programmes for every native species that is absent, declining, or at risk:
Capercaillie — Britain’s largest grouse, now critically endangered in Scotland with fewer than 1,000 individuals. Habitat restoration and predator management are critical. Corncrake — once common across England, now confined to the Scottish islands. Farmland management changes (late mowing, retaining cover) can reverse the decline. Golden eagle — expanding the range south of Scotland into northern England where suitable habitat exists. Hen harrier — persecuted to near-extinction in England by illegal killing on grouse moors. BUILD will enforce existing wildlife crime laws with the same vigour as any other serious offence. Turtle dove — Britain’s fastest-declining bird. Farmland seed provision and hedgerow restoration (Climate Charter) address the habitat loss.
Pillar 4: Amphibians and Freshwater
Britain’s amphibian and freshwater species have been devastated by habitat loss, pollution, and disease. The great crested newt — a species so legally protected that it can halt a housing development — is declining despite its protection because the ponds it depends on are being filled in faster than they are being created.
BUILD will address freshwater biodiversity through: the farm pond restoration programme (Farming Charter, Pillar 12.2) — reversing the decades-long trend of filling in farm ponds, which are among the most productive wildlife habitats in the agricultural landscape; the waterway dredging and restoration programme (Water Charter) — restoring river habitats for fish, invertebrates, and amphibians; the sewage dumping ban (Land, Water & Living Charter, §1.8) — eliminating the pollution that kills freshwater species; creation of new ponds and wetland areas in every new housing development (linking to the allotment provision in the Planning Charter); and targeted breeding and release programmes for native species including pool frogs (extinct in Britain since the 1990s, now reintroduced to two sites in Norfolk), natterjack toads, and freshwater fish species that have been lost from rivers they historically occupied.
Pillar 5: Marine Wildlife
The Fisheries & Maritime Charter (Pillar 3.3) establishes marine recovery zones — buoyed, enforced no-fishing, no-transit exclusion areas where marine ecosystems recover. This pillar extends marine wildlife protection beyond fish stocks:
Whale recovery — humpback whales, minke whales, and fin whales are returning to British waters as populations recover from historic whaling. BUILD will designate whale recovery corridors along known migration routes, with speed restrictions on commercial shipping to reduce strike risk and noise limits to protect acoustic communication.
Seal protections — grey and harbour seal populations will be protected from disturbance at haul-out sites and breeding colonies. Boat exclusion zones around breeding sites during pupping season.
Dolphin and porpoise corridors — bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins, and harbour porpoises are resident in British waters year-round. Acoustic monitoring and vessel management in high-density areas to reduce disturbance.
Seabird nesting protections — puffins, guillemots, razorbills, gannets, and terns are declining due to overfishing of their prey species (sand eels), disturbance at nesting sites, and predation by invasive species (rats on island breeding colonies). The sustainable fishing provisions of the Fisheries Charter protect prey species. Invasive species removal on breeding islands will be funded and executed.
Pillar 6: The Rule — Native Only
BUILD will rewild every species that was native to Britain and can viably be reintroduced. BUILD will not introduce species that were never native to Britain. No cheetahs to manage deer. No African elephants for savanna restoration. No exotic species introduced because they are charismatic or because someone read about them in a rewilding book. The criterion is simple: was this species here before humans removed it? If yes, it comes back. If no, it does not.
The evidence for former presence must be archaeological, palaeontological, or historical. If there is no credible evidence that the species existed in Britain within the Holocene period (the last 11,700 years), it is not a candidate for reintroduction. This is rewilding, not a zoo.
Pillar 7: Breeding and Release
BUILD will establish a National Rewilding Centre — a breeding, research, and release facility dedicated to producing viable populations of species for reintroduction. The Centre will work with European breeding programmes (wolves, lynx, and bears already have established captive populations in European zoos and rewilding projects), develop release protocols, monitor released populations, and manage the post-release landscape.
Releases will be phased, monitored, and adaptive: beavers and boar first; lynx next, once the landowners have agreed; wolves once the fencing is fitted and the landowners have agreed; bears last, after their feasibility programme. A wolf pack is not simply released and forgotten. It is tracked, studied, and managed. If a pack ranges into an area where coexistence infrastructure is insufficient, the pack is relocated. If a beaver dam causes flooding that affects a community, the dam is modified with flow devices. Rewilding is managed, not abandoned. The wild comes back, but it comes back with a plan.
We did not inherit this land from our ancestors. We borrowed it from the wolves, the bears, the lynx, the boar, the beavers, the eagles, and the frogs we drove out. BUILD will return what was taken. Managed. Monitored. Coexisting with the farms and the communities that share the land. Wild does not mean unmanaged. It means alive.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
BUILD UK
builduk.club
October 2026
Download this charter as a document (.docx) — the paper as written. What follows is the same text, readable.