Wild Enchantment and Exclusion: The Unequal Benefits of Rewilding

This presentation will question and complicate claims about rewilding benefitting society (Jepson, 2016; Maller et al, 2019; Lorimer et al, 2015). While there are clear benefits for some people, there is little research into which people receive these benefits. It goes on to argue that while rewilding provides enchantment for some, these experiences are unequally distributed and reflect broader patterns of social injustice and exclusion (Rishbeth & Finney, 2006; Slater, 2022; Shrubsole, 2019). In making this argument, it will draw on ongoing qualitative interviews with a range of people who are connected to or disconnected from rewilding projects. This paper argues that while rewilding benefits people, large landowners, conservation workers, and the middle and upper classes enjoy different kinds and qualities of enchantment with a wilder nature than marginalised groups. These experiences are difficult for marginalised people to experience due to historical and ongoing processes of economic, social and political exclusion. This presentation will conclude by arguing the need to examine the inequalities of everyday enchantment, that all people should have the means to enjoy the enchantments of wilder rural areas, and the need to respond through collective political action.