The Guardian, Wednesday May 9, 2007  Conservation groups say they are in favour of restoring Britain's countryside to its former and wilder glory but have done little to back this up. Is it now up to private landowners to take action? Peter Marren reports.

Picture a place where the farm animals make their own decisions. Cows, ponies and pigs can wander where they please through fen and copse, across open, gateless fields like wandering herds of big game. They decide exactly where to shelter for the night, where to find their daily subsistence, and who should be the leader of the pack. No, it's not Orwell's Animal Farm but a real place. In West Sussex. Right next to the A24. 

It all started on the opposite side of the Channel. In the middle of the Netherlands, on land reclaimed from the sea just 40 years ago and surrounded by some of the richest agricultural land in the world, lies Oostvaardersplassen. This 5,600-hectare (14,000-acre) tract of uninhabited fen, scrub woodland and wild grassland is one of Europe's great surprises. It is home to teeming numbers of wild birds, as well as free-roaming Heck cattle and Konik horses. These latter are the nearest we have to the wild cattle and horses of prehistoric Europe. If all goes well, they will soon be joined by wild bison from Poland. It should offer a little glimpse of the Pleistocene epoch.

This is a long way from the traditional British approach to nature conservation. We parcel up nature in reserves. No big wild animals, no exciting sense of wildness, but plenty of routemarks, boardwalks and visitor centres.

Some people yearn for something a bit more adventurous. To them, the Oostvaardersplassen has caught the imagination. They call it "rewilding". Exponents dream of the return of the big beasts - wild cattle and horses, but also our lost beasts, such as beaver, wild boar, lynx, bison and even the wolf. In the words of one enthusiast, it is about "encouraging wild imaginings in our urban mindset". Get the wild beasts in, and not only does it feel good but it is good. The land will breathe an Arcadian sigh of relief and biodiversity will soar.

Yet, so far, it has been all talk and no bison. Hopes of rewilding parts of the Scottish Highlands came to grief after the Scottish executive refused to allow even a small-scale pilot scheme for introducing beavers. So the prospect for bigger beasts is not promising. True, there are a few wolves in the Highlands, corralled within high fences, but they have no chance of early release.

The idea of a haven of rewilding in the heart of the home counties would have seemed like fantasy until a few years ago. But it is happening. The 1,416 hectare Knepp Castle estate has belonged to the Burrell family for generations. And, like many slices of English turf, it shows visible signs of a deep history. There is the shell of a Norman castle, a lake created under the Tudors to power an iron foundry, and a scatter of ancient oaks planted by the Georgian master landscape-gardener, Humphry Repton. But until very recently, it was farmed conventionally. Crops and cows. Rye grass and regularity.

Letting go Some years ago, the owner, Charlie Burrell, had a change of heart. "We'd been farming intensively, right up to the front door," he says. "The sense of relief in just letting go was extraordinary. Suddenly, I was looking out on to land that was doing its own thing, and on animals that were able to wander where they liked and eat what they liked. It seemed an obvious step to try to expand the idea to the whole estate, if we could."

So, out went the crops and the dairy cows, and in came a herd of pedigree longhorns - an ancient breed of cattle requiring minimal maintenance. To keep them company, Burrell introduced fallow deer, a small herd of Exmoor ponies, and a couple of Tamworth sows and their piglets. The cornfields were resown with native grasses and flowers. The folds between the hills were encouraged to grow wild and wet - prime beaver habitat if the environment department should ever look kindly on their introduction. 

A Longhorn cow and calf living wild in the grounds at Knepp Castle, West Sussex, while wild horses run free at Oostvaarsplassen, in the Netherlands (below) Photograph: Knepp, Hans Kampf

4With amazing speed, Knepp Castle began to look less like a farm and more like a north European version of the Serengeti savanna lands of east Africa. Every field looks different - some with tall flowers and grasses, others well-grazed, with the odd bare patch where a rooting hog has dug up a thistle. Hedges are turning into mini-woods and spreading along the margins. In summer, the hum of insects is audible. 

Knepp Castle has become a fully working model of a "rewild" landscape, or as near to one as the practicalities allow. To qualify for farm payments, the estate has to remain in agricultural production. Excess cattle, pigs and deer are sold as meat. The experiment would have been impossible to finance without the redevelopment of redundant farm buildings, and it might be over-optimistic to expect the level of agricultural support to continue.

But why have the first steps towards a wilder countryside been taken by a private landowner and not by a conservation body, which are the ones that are plugging the idea? Why isn't the conservation industry putting money where its mouth is?

David Bullock, head of nature conservation for Britain's largest landowner, the National Trust (NT), says part of the reason is that even the NT has "few situations where we have enough land for the restoration of mega-fauna". But, in any case, the trust is not convinced by rewilding.

"We're unsure about the advantages of wild feral cattle compared with domesticated cattle," Bullock says. The nearest the NT has come is at its Ennerdale property in the Lake District, dubbed "a wild experience for people". But for the NT, "wild" means Galloway cattle in a big pen, not beavers or wolves.

The RSPB believes that it has "already gone a fair way down that road" with birds, notably the reintroduction of sea eagles and red kites. But, like the NT, the RSPB has no plans to create another Oostvaardersplassen. It has introduced semi-wild Konik ponies to Minsmere, Suffolk, home of the bittern and the marsh harrier. But the job of the ponies is to create suitable conditions for breeding birds.

Perhaps at the heart of the issue is Britain's disconnection from large wild animals, apart from the financially-productive red deer. Some of us might yearn for a bit more wildness, but we also like our countryside to be safe. We long ago eradicated species that might be dangerous and seem reluctant to have them back.

"I think that loss has impoverished us as a nation," Burrell says. "We may not be able to reintroduce predators, but at least we can restore some kind of relationship with large herbivores. We need to reconnect with that sense of wildness - not only to get a better understanding of nature and how to conserve it, but in terms of the imagination and the human spirit." 

Back tracks

European beaver
Native British animal until the 16th century. Hunted to extinction. Free-living colonies in every European country except Britain and Ireland. Advantages Increases biodiversity by cropping willows and creating pools. Snags Some claim it is a threat to fish stocks and could cause flooding. So far Trial introduction in Argyll vetoed by Scottish executive. Small enclosed populations in Kent and Gloucestershire.

Konik horses
Cross between the extinct wild horse, or tarpan, and 19th-century Polish workhorses. Advantages Hardy and self-reliant. Stimulates biodiversity by keeping open wild grasslands and fens. Snags Not as people-friendly as tame horses. Might be difficult to find a home for surplus foals. So far Introduced to wetland nature reserves in Kent, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

Exmoor pony
A pure-blooded breed little changed since prehistory and close to the ancestral wild horse. Advantages Hardy and strong; happy grazing rough vegetation, and well-adapted to semi-wild situations. Snags Can be difficult finding homes for surplus stock. So far Used for "conservation grazing" on nature reserves, especially heathland.

Wild boar
Native woodland animal; extinct since the 17th century through hunting or cross-breeding with domestic pigs. Advantages Increases regeneration and biodiversity through ground disturbance. Requires minimal maintenance. Snags Potentially dangerous if cornered. Might decimate bluebell woods. So far It has introduced itself by escaping from farms. Well-established in south-east England and Dorset.

European lynx
Predator. Formerly thought to have died out in prehistory, though evidence points to its survival in remote places in Britain into the Middle Ages. Advantages Would help to control numbers of small deer. Feelgood factor: puts the wild into wildlife. Snags Sheep farmers would be up in arms, but European farmers manage to live with them. So far Little prospect of reintroduction. Some reported escaped "big cats" are probably lynx, but no signs of breeding in the wild.

Wolf
Signature species of rewilding; extinct in Britain since the 18th century. Advantages A recent Royal Society report claims that a Highland wolf pack would reduce local deer numbers by three-quarters - which is good news both for tree regeneration and for biodiversity. Feelgood factor: walking with wolves. Snags No support from landowning or tourism bodies, and precious little from conservation bodies. So far All British wolves are behind secure fences in wildlife parks. It is illegal to put wolf and deer together.