Welsh charity buys more than 405 hectares for rewilding

Project in Ceredigion aims to help country catch up with large-scale nature recovery projects elsewhere in UK

A Welsh charity has bought more than 405 hectares (1,000 acres) in Ceredigion to establish Cymru’s “flagship” rewilding project, helping the country catch up with large-scale nature recovery projects under way elsewhere in the UK.

Tir Natur (Nature’s Land), founded in 2022, announced it had acquired the site at Cwm Doethie in Elenydd, or the Cambrian mountains, after a fundraising drive raised 50% of the £2.2m purchase price. A philanthropic bridging loan enabled the sale.

Fundraising efforts to begin early restoration work and community activities on the rewilding site – Wales’s largest – are ongoing.

Naturalist and broadcaster Iolo Williams, an ambassador for the charity, said: “I am hugely excited by their efforts to purchase land and showcase the benefits of rewilding, not only to wildlife and the physical environment, but to farming, Welsh communities and culture. Nature needs this.”