Creating the Blean Wildscape vision

This now fragmented landscape wraps around the historic city of Canterbury, providing an important habitat for the iconic heath fritillary butterfly and Red-list woodland specialist birds, including lesser-spotted woodpeckers, nightingales and spotted flycatchers. Situated in the Garden of England, the landscape has been shaped by agriculture with 70% of the land being used for farming but there is increasing pressure from development, climate change and other threats to rare habitats. 

Funding from the Rewilding Britain Challenge Fund has enabled a partnership between Kent Wildlife Trust, RSPB and the Woodland Trust to develop a strong evidence base and ambitious strategy to restore natural processes and reconnect the landscape for the benefit of wildlife and people. By working with the community, landholders and stakeholders the partnership brought together knowledge, expertise and ideas to build the vision of a restored landscape driven by natural processes with missing species returned, that is reconnected and wilded in one of the most land-scarce corners of England.   

This work has provided us with the foundation we need to move into the delivery phase of this initiative, which includes plans to launch a natural investment zone across East Kent with the Blean Wildscape sitting at the heart of this.