Rewilding guest blog by Jon Conradi. Founder of Wild Mosaic – the Re Wilding project talks all about it….
The principles of the circular economy were adopted from natural processes. What is discarded by one part of the system is sought after by another. But these natural processes are often missing from our land, even in our countryside. Often the way we manage our land is closer to fast fashion than a thriving ecosystem. That is why I created a rewilding business, to bring back wildness, and the natural processes that are an integral part of this .
There are two complementary parts to rewilding:
- Bringing more wildness into your life
- Making this affordable
“I see being part of more circularity as becoming wilder”. Jon Conradi
Circularity in business models and natural processes create deep interdependence, webs of connection and positive feedback loops . It’s contrasted to the linear economy, which is take, make and throw. Neat, ordered, with the destruction out of sight.
When we tackle this by shopping second hand, we start to gain the benefits of circularity. Not only does ‘waste’ become useful, but we create more interconnections, deeper relationships to the products we buy, the materials and people that are part of this process. We become, in the natural sense, wilder.
We also need to bring this process back to our land. In the UK we talk about our ‘green and pleasant land’. But that is often an illusion. The reality is that we have subjected most of our once wild places to our linear economics. This has led to a massive loss in wildlife and habitat. Over centuries we have made our land into a resource: cut down woodland for timber, turned wildflower meadows into pasture and drained wetlands for crops. This has brought us benefits, but at a cost. We are now one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. Bringing more wildness back into our landscapes and our lives is a solution to this.
But rewilding is expensive
Rewilding involves large amounts of land and time. There have been some incredible success stories. But often by people who own hundreds of acres who can casually experiment with a hundred acres or so. My business, Wild Mosaic, aims to make a rewilding journey into wildness accessible by adopting a small part of a wider project.
Each subscriber chooses a tile, which becomes part of this wider mosaic. For some people, this will still be too expensive but my aim is to create value by showing you the wildness that comes back and can be part of our lives. We can feel squeezed in all directions financially, so here are some low cost ways you can get involved:
• Take my subscription challenge
• Go for a walk and see what you notice – too often we focus on what we lose by becoming more sustainable. But when we start to notice wildness around us, it can help us see what we can gain.[link to find walk]