If You Liked This…īutterflies of Singapore has a nice post on how the circuit breaker has helped the butterflies in Singapore. I hope that more people will emulate them.

And not just a call to action, the Knepp estate has already demonstrated what can be done. Overall, Wilding is a love letter to Britain and its natural past, a well-written explanation of how nature functions in an ecosystem, and a stirring call to action. At first, I thought that this was rather untidy (much like the people around the Knepp estate!) but after reading this and hearing about how these flowers supported the butterfly ecosystem in Singapore, I’m hoping that the government will let nature take back a bit more land. As part of the circuit breaker, the grass at the roadsides were left alone and as a result, many plants normally treated as weeds were left alone. It was also eye-opening to learn about the plight of turtle doves, nightingales, and other animals in the UK and how they can learn from other countries such as the Netherlands.Ĭloser to home, Singapore has had an unintentional rewilding experiment of its own.

It sounds like the best of both worlds – helping the environment while making money responsibly. I finished this book with a much greater understanding of what the Knepp estate is all about and a deep yearning to see it for myself. Chapter by chapter, Isabella takes us through the process of their journey – how they chose which cows to introduce, how the animals started to return, and their battle trying to get enough funding. Wilding chronicles the journey (and benefits) of turning Knepp from a traditional farm into a natural oasis, how this process of returning the land to nature not only helped the environment, but ended up being profitable for them.

When I made a recent Book Depository order, I felt that it was time to get this and learn more. It was an article about the environmental impacts of eating livestock that was reared in a natural environment compared to the environmental impacts of intensely farmed vegetables, and the descriptions of the Knepp estate caught my eye. I first heard about Wilding when I came across an article by Isabella Tree in The Guardian.

Wilding book isabella tree