GRCF2021: Court Farm Rewilding Project - delivering nature's recovery and climate resilience (360G-cabinetoffice-G2-GA-202211828490-22-23)

Imagine being able to access a wilderness direct from your front door. Once barren fields, ringed with barbed wire, polluting the waterways and excluding the community, now a restored landscape, alive with returning wildlife, grazing animals and people.Dorset Wildlife Trust has a unique opportunity to establish a large community-based nature recovery project. We have created a new financial model using nature-based solutions to acquire 170ha of low-quality agricultural land in a key location. We will build a Nature Recovery Network in Dorset at a landscape-scale that will help control pollution entering the internationally important Poole Harbour while addressing the climate and ecological crises.The project will establish the UKs first community rewilding project, as well as the first such project in Dorset. We will rewild 150ha including 30ha of new wetlands that restore nature, hold back and cleanse water and capture carbon. The local community will help to create wild areas close to them, including 12.2ha of new community woodlands and orchards. The project will create two full-time jobs and support local contractors in delivering a range of nature-recovery activities.