Rewilding Britain - One LettsSafari Park (and Garden) at a Time

LettsSafari's biodiverse havens point to a different future - why removing carbon, restoring soil and plants and protecting wildlife is more important than ever.

As the UK and the US move into election mode the battle for and against climate change will, no doubt, rage across our screens and in print (what’s left of it!). It is the ultimate wedge issue - so we will get hammered with messages arguing that climate change is a hoax designed to scare us and we will hear all the ‘scientific’ counter arguments. We will be told that buying electric cars and heat pumps and paying congestion fees is a rip off for the ordinary person and some of it is true, until their costs come down. We will be told that this year and next is an El Nino and so more heat, rain and storms is to be expected. And to a certain extent that is also true. But, wanting to create a better planet for ourselves is not political and wanting a cleaner, more robust environment isn’t a scare tactic.

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At LettsSafari we try to keep out of the ‘political’ side of the climate wars. We think that the best way to make a difference is by building an engaged community of climate enthusiasts and to focus on making the climate difference: One tree, one animal and one new wild space at a time. We are constantly building and operating wild spaces that make a real difference by removing carbon, cleaning the air, restoring nature at-scale and rehabilitating our much needed wildlife and wild earth.

Because planting trees, releasing wildlife and creating new rewilded ‘safari’ spaces is not political. It is natural.

Where’s the politics in this?

LettsSafari has a simple mission - to spread rewilding and nature restoration to the masses. We believe that the best way to restore 30% of our planet is by helping others to wild smaller spaces - like gardens and smallholdings, little parks and verges and edges of community spaces and farms and new housing developments. After all, the 70% of our land owned and managed by farmers should be focused on making food. We’re going to need it in an increasingly over-populated era.

That is why we do not just build new rewilding ‘safari’ parks and gardens (which we constantly do), but we try and educate and inspire you to do it in your backyards, work places and in your community. Through LettsSafari + we try and bring our rewilded havens to you direct to your living room and your inbox. To inspire and show you what can be done. After all, we have been doing it long enough.

And we have seen first hand so many times the difference that these spaces make to its visitors - both people and wild animals. We have seen some of our most stressed visitors visibly change when walking through or settling into one of our rewilded safari parks. These places are, in many ways, quite mystical. And we always wanted to figure out how to make such mystical, wild spaces work in smaller and smaller and smaller spaces - so anyone can do it. Because anyone can make a climate difference without having to buy a new car or heater or new home. Ultimately helping to make our planet a better place one little pot at a time.

We have benefited from a surprising halo and ripple effect as more and more of LettsSafari’s members have shared stories about how they have started to rewild their small spaces. In a number of cases one garden at a time, in other instances one community space at a time and in some cases one whole park at a time. LettsSafari + has been bringing you some of these new rewilded case studies inspired by what we are doing and the way in which we have gone about it. In the southwest of England alone we believe we have already inspired countless new rewilding projects - and that does not include the professional gardeners and landscapers that are bringing our approach to the large numbers of places that they oversee.

Share your rewilding story with us - just put it in a comment!

We are building LettsSafari in 3 stages:

1. Stage 1 is doing exactly what we have been doing. Building a digital, rewilding mass market membership platform at LettsSafari.com that inspires our members to create more and more rewilded safari parks and gardens with us. We already have 6 parks in the LettsSafari Network of (private) Parks and we have inspired a large number of LettsSafari style gardens. So far, our growing digital membership base has come to us organically - mostly in southwest England. From next year we will start marketing and PR campaigns to attract members from across the UK and then internationally. Spreading LettsSafari style parks and gardens far and wide. After nearly 20 years and countless different rewilding projects we are comfortable that our smaller-scale rewilding system works.

2. Stage 2 started a few months ago. Simon, our impressive new Chair at LettsSafari, is working behind the scenes to garner enough support to build our first 1,000 acre LettsSafari park and resort in the UK that will be fully open to the public. An African style safari park right here in England. A national showcase for real, wild safari parks using LettsSafari’s rewilding system and its various eco-techniques open to day visitors and for people to stay over in a safari village. A place where even more people will be able to learn how to create LettsSafari-style wild spaces in a pot, or terrace or garden. A place with breathtaking rewilded gardens and a mini rewilded park next to a large, enclosed 900 acre safari park for vehicle safari’s with spectacular wild landscapes and wild animals - some released, some arriving on their own.

   

   A future LettsSafari Park & Resort?

3. Stage 3 we will build a team of biodiversity scientists that will work in LettsSafari’s dedicated rewilding parks to study and discover new methods that can help us to find more mass market solutions to the biodiversity crisis. Inventions that could create an even better planet. Inventions like LettsSafari’s Wildlife Biodome that we are testing in a few of our parks and gardens. A man made, recycled wood biodome that houses all kinds of wildlife above the surface and acts as a bug factory to improve the soil and life below the surface. Think of Stage 3 like the project at Kew Gardens which is installing a team of scientists to work on new plant based discoveries from their amazing gardens. Our team will work on discoveries from our rewilded safari parks. A wild living laboratory for tomorrow.

We believe that over time LettsSafari can inspire and equip us to wild 30% of our green and pleasant land. One small green space at a time adding up to a massive connected patchwork of wild, biodiverse lands. We are not trying to politicise the climate challenge - we are just trying to tackle it. Day in and day out. The real way.

Whenever we walk through a LettsSafari park or garden we know why. They point to a better future - they really are like mini African safari parks in the Western world. They have to be seen to be believed. We hope that LettsSafari + brings them effectively to your home. And that in the future, when our first LettsSafari Park and Resort opens to the public, it will inspire you, in person, as well. Safari means ‘journey’ in Swahili. We hope you will take this multi-stage journey with us. We hope you will LettsSafari.

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Get more LettsSafari updates and wildlife photos from our twitter. And read all the latest posts at the LettsSafari + website.