THE headlines are back, and so are the outstretched hands.
Another rewilding charity, Trees for Life, has launched a campaign for £3.6million of public and donor money to finance what can only be described as a series of vanity projects disguised as conservation.
Its so-called ‘Missing Species Programme’ promises to restore lynx, beavers, red squirrels, and aurochs to the Scottish Highlands, claiming it will benefit landscapes, climate, and communities. In reality, it is a costly and misguided endeavour that amounts to little more than fraud.
Let’s be clear: none of these introductions will help our wildlife in general. In fact, they will actively harm it.
The proposal to reintroduce the lynx is a prime example of rewilders ignoring the delicate balance of our existing ecosystems. These predators would add immense pressure to some of our already endangered species. What will become of the capercaillie and blackgame, birds fighting for survival, when a new apex predator is introduced to pick them off? This isn’t restoration; it’s reckless interference.
Then we have the auroch, glorified as a landscape-shaping beast. The truth is, it’s just another cow by a different name. Our hardy native breeds have managed our landscapes for centuries and are perfectly capable of doing any job that it’s claimed the aurochs’ descendant, the ‘tauros’, can do. This is a solution in search of a problem, a romanticised fantasy funded by millions.
The charity’s plan for red squirrels is perhaps the most telling of its illogical approach. For decades, the primary threat to red squirrels has been the invasive grey squirrel. The simplest, most cost-effective solution is a targeted and sustained programme to cull the greys. Instead, rewilders introduce another variable: the pine marten. While it may prey on greys, it is also a predator of the very reds we are trying to protect. Why complicate a straightforward issue? If we just kill the greys, the reds would multiply naturally without the added risk.
At its core, this rewilding frenzy is tantamount to fraud. It is just another way of keeping these so-called conservation charities solvent. By dreaming up ever-more ambitious and media-friendly projects, they secure headlines and tap into a flow of public sympathy and money.
The £3.6million price of this latest venture is a staggering sum which could be spent on practical, proven conservation efforts that genuinely protect the wildlife we have left, rather than gambling it on speculative reintroductions.
These projects are not about restoring nature for nature’s sake; they are about creating a spectacle. They are vanity projects for organisations and their donors, offering the chance to ‘play God’ with our ecosystems while the public foots the bill.
It’s time we saw this rewilding agenda for what it is: a costly distraction from the real work of conservation, and a fraud upon the public purse.
Bert Burnett is a retired gamekeeper of more than 50 years’ experience.
This article appeared in the Country Squire Magazine on December 3, 2025, and is republished by kind permission.
