Welsh Rewilding Alliance

Overview

The Welsh Rewilding Alliance launched in March 2026 to unite organisations, landowners, communities and decision-makers behind rewilding in Wales. Its stated function is to coordinate action that builds public support and drives a major political commitment to rewilding at a scale new to Wales.

It is worth being precise about what it is. It is a coalition, not a registered charity or company, and it publishes no governance structure, board or constitution. That is not a criticism, it is how coalitions usually start, but anyone citing it should describe it accurately.

The Six Aims

The Alliance sets out six aims. They are outcomes rather than policies, and the last two are the ones that make it distinctively Welsh.

• "Flourishing ecosystems, where nature is given the space to recover and natural processes can thrive."
• "Active public and community involvement, so people are part of shaping the future of land and sea in Wales through rewilding."
• "Strong, diverse rural economies, rooted in nature and creating meaningful, long-term opportunities for local communities."
• "Supportive policies, laws, and funding that make rewilding possible and effective."
• "A Wales rich in culture and language, where rewilding contributes to vibrant communities and a thriving Welsh language."
• "Fairer access to land, recognising the need for land reform in Wales and the opportunities rewilding can offer communities within this."

The Welsh Way to Wild

The Alliance's founding report was published in March 2026 and written by Jon Moses, co-director of Right to Roam. It opens with the state of Welsh nature: around 300 species lost since 1800, roughly 37 per cent biological intactness, 67 per cent of protected areas in unfavourable condition, 90 per cent of peatland degraded, and salmon populations down 70 per cent in a decade.

Its most interesting argument is not ecological. The report claims rewilding as a rural repopulation strategy, and Moses puts it bluntly: rewilding is repopulation. It cites 40 per cent of young people expecting to leave Wales, 8,000 agricultural jobs lost in a decade, and a median age of 61 for the main farm decision-maker with only 3 per cent of farmers under 35. Rewilding Britain's own network reported a 120 per cent increase in full-time jobs over its first ten years.

It also argues that Wales needs a networked model rather than one large site, because Welsh landholdings are smaller. It proposes 5 per cent of Wales as core rewilding and 25 per cent across a semi-wild spectrum, linked by corridors. The public opinion figures it quotes, 75 per cent support for rewilding and 94 per cent for beaver reintroduction, are the report's own citations and are worth attributing to it rather than treating as independent findings.

Language, Culture and the Colonialism Charge

The Alliance operates bilingually, with parallel Welsh and English sites and a Welsh-first contact address. The report reaches back to the sixteenth-century bard Robin Clidro on the felling of Marchan Wood, and recovers Welsh land vocabulary such as ffridd, rhos, perllan and gwyllt. Its argument is that ecological grief is a long Welsh literary tradition, not a modern import.

This is doing real work rather than decoration. Welsh rewilding carries the memory of Summit to Sea, which collapsed amid accusations of eco-colonialism. Framing rewilding as something done in Wales, by Wales, and as a way of keeping Welsh speakers in Welsh-speaking communities through rural jobs, is a direct answer to that charge.

What It Asks of the Senedd

The Alliance analysed all six main parties' manifestos before the May 2026 Senedd election, and now runs a Rewild the Senedd campaign aimed at the new government. Its five proposals are:

1. "Pay for natural grazing by embedding rewilding and natural process-led approaches in the Sustainable Farming Scheme"
2. "Lead by example, empowering Natural Resources Wales to manage the public estate for large-scale restoration"
3. "Bring back lost species through a national keystone species reintroduction strategy, starting with beavers and oysters"
4. "Empower communities with a Community Right-to-Buy for land and a Nature Creation Licence for the seas"
5. "Slow the flow with a nature-based action plan for flood management across affected Welsh catchments"

Its manifesto analysis found the Greens strongest on explicit rewilding commitments and Labour strongest on structural detail, with gaps across all parties on landscape connectivity, marine protection and keystone species beyond beavers. It put an estimated £438 million annual funding shortfall into the debate, a figure it publishes without a visible methodology.

Who Is In It

At its launch in March 2026 the Alliance named seven core members: the British Mountaineering Council, The Grange Project, The Green Valleys, Rewilding Britain, Right to Roam, Tir Natur and Wye Valley Wilding. Supporters named at the same time included Black Mountains College, Campaign for National Parks, Climate Cymru, River Action, Save the Wye and Tir Pontypridd.

The Alliance has since grown to around nineteen organisations and no longer publishes a split between core members and supporters, listing them all together. We are a core member, and The Grange Project is named in The Welsh Way to Wild as a rewilding partner, alongside Black Mountains College as an anchor institution.

How to Support

There is no published formal membership process. Organisations and individuals can sign up to the newsletter through the Get Involved button on the Alliance site, email the Alliance directly, or follow it on Bluesky, Instagram and LinkedIn. Visit rewildingalliance.cymru.

Related Grange Project Content

Read about Tir Natur, the charity behind the largest rewilding site in Wales, explore our guide to rewilding in Wales, or return to the rewilding organisations hub.