When people hear the word rewilding, they often imagine wolves returning to remote forests or vast landscapes being handed back to nature.
But one of the most exciting frontiers for biodiversity isn’t hundreds of miles from our homes—it’s right outside our front doors.
Our towns and cities have become one of the UK’s most important opportunities for nature recovery. From pocket parks and railway embankments to front gardens, school grounds and roadside verges, urban spaces have enormous potential to support wildlife.
That’s why organisations like Abundance London are so inspiring to us at LettsSafari. They demonstrate that rewilding doesn’t always begin with large estates or government initiatives. Sometimes it starts with a handful of neighbours, a neglected patch of land and the determination to make a street greener.
For LettsSafari, that’s exactly what urban rewilding is all about.
Cities Are Part of Nature Too
The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, yet over 80% of us now live in urban areas. If we want wildlife to recover, cities can’t be excluded from the solution. In fact, urban areas can become incredibly rich ecosystems when we design them with biodiversity in mind.
A flowering verge can feed thousands of pollinating insects.
Native hedgerows become wildlife corridors.
Street trees provide food, shelter and cooler neighbourhoods.
Community orchards support birds, insects and local people alike.
Every square metre matters.
Abundance London has spent years demonstrating this approach through community orchards, edible landscapes, biodiversity projects and neighbourhood planting schemes. Rather than viewing cities as places separate from nature, they show how people and wildlife can thrive together.
Urban Rewilding Doesn’t Mean Leaving Everything Untouched
One common misconception is that rewilding means simply abandoning land. Urban rewilding is much more intentional than that. It means making better decisions about how we use space.
Instead of sterile planting schemes that provide little value for wildlife, we choose native species.
Instead of mowing every piece of grass every week, we allow wildflowers to bloom.
Instead of removing every fallen leaf, we recognise that leaf litter provides habitat for countless insects.
Instead of seeing fruit trees as decorative features, we understand they become miniature ecosystems supporting birds, bees and people.
Urban rewilding is active, practical and surprisingly achievable.
Small Spaces Create Big Impact
Perhaps the biggest lesson from Abundance London is that size isn’t the most important factor. Connectivity is.
A single wildlife-friendly garden might help a handful of bees.
Twenty gardens on the same street become a pollinator highway.
A lone tree provides shade.
A network of street trees creates habitat, cools neighbourhoods and improves air quality.
One wildflower border is helpful.
Hundreds across a borough become a functioning ecosystem.
Nature doesn’t recognise property boundaries.
Every small habitat becomes part of a much larger network.
And as organisations like Abundance London demonstrate so well, that’s already happening - one street at a time.