Interest in rewilding our coasts has surged in recent years, as communities and scientists alike recognise the power of restoring saltmarshes, seagrass meadows, and mudflats to revive nature and protect shorelines from climate impacts. Dr Charlotte Hopkins, Senior Lecturer in Marine Conservation at the University of Hull and member of the Coast-R Network team, tells us about the intersection between coastal resilience and a rewilded seascape.
Coastal habitats are at the land-sea interface and are important places for both nature and people. From rocky cliffs and shorelines, salt marsh and dune systems, to mudflats and seagrass meadows, these habitats support a diverse range of species and provide multiple ecosystem services with high potential to address the biodiversity-climate-societal crisis. Saltmarshes reduce the height of waves and storm surges, helping to lower the risks of flooding and erosion. Dune systems protect the land behind them from storm surges and high tides, while mudflats store carbon aiding in climate mitigation. Coastal tourism activities are often directly linked to intact natural habitats and time spent in these areas can improve our health and well-being. However, coastal habitats continue to disappear, to be fragmented and polluted, and are increasingly impacted by climate change.
What is coastal rewilding?
Coastal rewilding is a process of restoring degraded coastal habitats by recovering natural processes and species and managing human impacts leading to a self-sustaining ecosystem. There are a range of approaches for coastal rewilding. Passive rewilding involves passively allowing nature to recover in protected areas or areas where human use has been abandoned, for example areas of historic salt extraction, land or sea farming. More active rewilding approaches may include actively restoring habitat-forming species like kelp and oysters, planting seagrass meadows, or fixing damaged natural hydrology through removing sea defences or inactivation of drainage systems.
Rewilding therefore overlaps with other coastal nature management approaches such as “managed realignment”, “ecological enhancement” and “Nature Based Solutions”. But the key goals of rewilding are to allow for natural regeneration that requires minimal human intervention in the future, to promote the recovery of keystone species (species that have a strong influence on the function of the ecosystem), and the restoration of ecosystem processes.
Why do we need it?
Coastal habitats in the UK have declined significantly. We have lost an estimated 85% of saltmarsh and 92% of seagrass since the 1800s. Coastal development, reclamation, coastal erosion and sea-level rise have substantially reduced the amount of our critical coastal habitats. These ongoing declines threaten biodiversity and crucial ecosystem services like flood protection.
Coastal rewilding can increase resilience and adaptation to climate change impacts by increasing ecological complexity. Restoring saltmarshes and seagrass meadows enhances coastal water retention and wave attenuation, reducing erosion and flood risk. Re-establishing oyster reefs can buffer storm surges. Reconnecting tidal flows to previously embanked wetlands can improve natural flood regulation and sediment dynamics.
Coastal rewilding is becoming a popular low-cost solution to build resilience on our coasts, often as an alternative or complement to hard sea defences.
Building back resilience
There are an increasing number of initiatives at local and national levels that are working to build coastal resilience through the rewilding of coastal spaces.
A large scale project to restore and rewild the saltmarsh and mudflat habitats at Rhymney Great Wharf, Wales is underway, with work being led by Natural Resources Wales (NRW). The project is a critical part of a wider scheme to protect Cardiff’s coastline from rising sea levels and erosion.
Somerset’s Steart Marshes has been highlighted as a successful case study by Rewilding Britain which demonstrates the potential of rewilding to create a connected ecosystem that can provide coastal defence. The creation of the marshes was a joint project between the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and the Environment Agency and has helped improve the health and wellbeing of many in the local community by allowing them to connect with nature.
Across the UK, Managed Realignment Schemes, where seawalls may be breached and estuaries realigned, can provide flood protection and also help create new intertidal habitats, boosting biodiversity and natural ecosystem processes aligning with some of the goals of rewilding.
Across Europe, there are a number of interdisciplinary projects building knowledge on coastal rewilding. The REWRITE project is developing innovative conservation approaches to restore Europe’s intertidal areas and provides a platform for stakeholders to share their knowledge and expertise, and to co-design rewilding scenarios.
Interconnected natural and human systems
Coastal rewilding is not just about wildlife and habitats; it is essential to recognise the role of humans as part of the ecosystem. Coastal rewilding can help us address both biodiversity loss and climate change and deliver a range of wider environmental and societal benefits. Coastal rewilding must be approached in a way that allows the sustainable continuation of human activities within a wilder natural environment. It must also be inclusive, particularly as people are increasingly aware of the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on their lives, and some directly depend on the coast for their livelihoods.
To better link up rewilding approaches with action on coastal resilience, we can do the following:
- Promote understanding and awareness of the importance of our coastal habitats for biodiversity and also for increasing resilience to climate change impacts.
- Remove coastal pressures and change practices where applicable, to ensure that coastal ecosystems are able to regenerate and provide the benefits that society needs.
- Improve planning and governance, promoting more joined-up decision-making by government, and support greater involvement in decision-making at a local level.
Our coastal zones are dynamic and complex, and interconnected nature-human systems. Coastal rewilding can be a complementary approach in building resilience for coastal communities, allowing ecosystems to function and thrive to the benefit of biodiversity, including humans.
