Hmmmm. Knepp is using heritage breeds of livestock rather than the attempts to "breed back" e.g. aurochs. Low-density grazing and wood pasture very much is traditional farming practice - a lot of commons would have looked like Knepp before enclosure, for instance. I don't think they even use the "rewilding" label to describe what they do.jimbob wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 7:45 pmAs an aside my daughter (geography degree) and my brother (ecologist) have been talking about the Knepp Estate rewilding on WhatsApp, along with some of Dad's former colleagues.Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:12 pmLooking medium-term, most farming isn't going to be sustainable without EU subsidies and cheap imported labour, and I don't see the Tories replacing either.
So we'll be seeing land abandonment on a massive scale. Obviously rural communities will need a huge amount of support, but in terms of land use it's a huge opportunity for catchment-scale river restoration, peatland restoration (something like 25x more effective as a carbon sink than forest), maybe even a couple of rewilded landscapes (perhaps a National Park or two could be appropriated for conservation/carbon purposes, for example). Plus all those extra trees we need will plant themselves given a few years without ploughing.
Creating cool, interesting bits of countryside with recreational jobs might be the best solution for farming communities anyway. Eagles are huge business in places like Mull - much more profitable than sheep, especially when you factor in that most upland farming is entirely dependent on public money.
My brother's view is that it would have been better to try to emulate a 17th Century farming regime rather than rewilding as a lot of farms will end up being uneconomic, and recreate lots of the habitats that it's creating anyway, whilst the 17th Century farming regime would create habitats that are now more rare. He says that the ecological impact reports also suggest this.
In any case, abandoned farms won't create Knepp-style habitats without the reintroduction of boar and various grazers, unless current farming stock are just allowed to go feral and wander off, which I think is unlikely.
The big value of Knepp has been a concrete demonstration of what's possible on UK soil, as policymakers were unconvinced by reasoned arguments and demonstrations in places like the Netherlands. The fact that beaver reintroduction is looking hugely likely probably owes a fair bit to Knepp, for instance, even though they haven't actually got any beavers - because they've changed how people think about "rewilding".
It's possible that in a hypothetical future with large-scale farm abandonment and herbivore reintroductions that Knepp-style habitats would become common, and that running a heritage farm would create rarer habitats. But there's plenty of old-fashioned model farms in the UK already, so it wouldn't generate as much interest or attention right now when we need the debate to advance.