Human health and well being are inextricably linked to nature, but we are living through a mass extinction event because of the pressure that economic life puts on ecosystems.
It is a climate and an ecological emergency. But the economy ultimately depends on nature, and enhancing the conditions for life lends a natural advantage to making transformations happen. Rapid transition to thrive within the biosphere’s thresholds, means creating space for nature with policies to restore habitats in urban, suburban and countryside areas. Not only can this benefit other plants and animals, but through more contact with nature bring greater well being and quality of life for people.
Rapid transition also means practical models for food and farming that will improve human and environmental health, maximise the landscape’s ability to store carbon, promote innovations in land management and ownership, and ease the transition by protecting jobs and creating new green employment opportunities.
In already built-up and industrial areas ‘rewilding’ is an increasingly popular approach. Rewilding is people helping wildlife to recover by changing human behaviours, removing barriers, regenerating ecosystems and restoring species, and then living in harmony with the rest of nature. Doing it rapidly means reconnecting people with nature and realigning how we live, the restoration of endangered or locally-extinct native species, and the regeneration of rural and urban landscapes with abundant wildlife.
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