Rebirding takes the long view of bird and wildlife decline in the UK, from the early taming of the British landscape, fenland drainage and removal of its cornerstone species, such as wild grazers, beavers and boar, to intensification of our modern landscapes, and our vanishing cuckoos.

It looks at key reasons why birds are vanishing around us today, as the insect food-chain collapses and many birds are trapped in tiny pockets too small to survive. We explore how Britain has, uniquely, relied on modifying farmland, rather than restoring ecosystems, in a failing attempt to halt bird decline.

Rebirding maps out how we might finally turn things around, rewilding our national parks, restoring natural ecosystems and allowing our birds, and wildlife, a return to the wild. In doing so, an entire new sector of rural jobs would also be created, finally bringing Britain’s dying rural landscapes back to life – for wildlife and people alike.

We are undergoing a mass extinction in our birds and wildlife after over two centuries of intensification. Many books lament the decline of British wildlife – this is the first to map out how this could be entirely turned around, economically and in the national interest.

Benedict Macdonald puts forward economic solutions to rewilding our landscapes, creating a future where large, wild areas look after their wildlife. This book advocates for the restoration of true ecosystems, with their original animal stewards, that many other countries, from the USA to Germany and Sweden, already enjoy.