I was scanning my emails today and something caught my eye in the newsletter from Triodos bank. Triodos are a bank committed to ethical investment that The Rewild Project made a very deliberate choice to bank with. I wouldn’t normally go to the trouble of reading the newsletter thoroughly but this time I ended up opening an article written by Marilou van Golstein Brouwers, Chair of the Management Board of Triodos Investment Management. I was surprised and impressed by what I read to find perhaps the world is really starting to speak a language that could actually bring about change. She wrote:

“We can be active participants in co-shaping the future. We have the opportunity to create new, collaborative and innovative ways to regenerate the foundations of our society, and to build a world that is more sustainable, humane and fair.”

I feel this is something I just did not expect to hear from the world of financial investment and whatever the context it really did make me take notice. It resonates with a strong feeling I have been having about this New Year that it is the beginning of something new and very different.

The Rewild Project has been going through a period of incubation, the winter tends to bring that but this time it has been brought about by projects falling through, a long space between funding and personal changes taking place. The unexpected dormant time has been a welcome chance for reflection, finishing things off and gathering ideas, and it now feels like the ground has been prepared for new shoots to emerge.

We have been learning a lot about restorative agriculture and ways to repair the earth whilst growing our food; it is inspiring and exciting to be in possession of knowledge that can create positive change. The garden and orchard projects we have so far set up are beginning to feel like establishing, productive spaces, which is a very good place to be at. After getting through all the earth moving and planting and protecting I am in high anticipation at the bursting of the buds this year, I look forward to other projects we have brewing taking inspiration and sparking creativity from the growth of what has already been established.

The Rewild Project has always been about much more than just our natural environment, to hear someone say with, as she put it ‘stubborn optimism’; “We have the opportunity to regenerate the foundations of our society”, was a moment of great hope for me.

Do we? I have always wondered if things needed to get extremely bad before they could change, like new life emerging from the ashes of a fire, destruction can stimulate new growth. So much has happened over the last year or two that it is hard to keep up, I wonder if it is the chaos that comes with great change. I think the era of organizing our society on the values of capitalism is coming to an end; there is a change in the weather and a huge opportunity to create something new in its place.

The Rewild Project looks forward to 2017 to embrace new beginnings, being active participants in a changing world and collaborations on new and regenerative projects.

Nichola Goff

Co-founder & Director of The Rewild Project.