How can legal frameworks support semi-wild, or “kept-wild”, animals on rewilding projects across the UK to live more naturally?
Stephanie Smith, Lifescape’s Managing Lawyer - Rewilding Law, recently explored this question during her webinar on “Semi-wild/Kept-Wild Livestock” as part of the Large Herbivore Working Group’s webinar series.
As explained in more detail below, she discussed livestock regulations and the work being undertaken by Lifescape to explore the use of exemptions and potential changes to the law to unlock the ecological potential of these animals.
The Large Herbivore Working Group (LHWG) is a group of experts whose aim is to advance the return of large grazing and browsing animals to aid in the restoration of natural processes to the UK.
The group is running a series of webinars sharing the group’s research so far, which to date has included sessions on Elk in Britain with Rina Quinlan, and Bison Reintroductions with Paul Whitfield.
Through grazing, browsing, disturbance, movement and nutrient cycling, large herbivores create and maintain many of the ecological processes upon which functioning ecosystems depend.
As part of our Rewilding Legal Innovation Lab on Building Legal Frameworks for Large Herbivores, we are exploring the use of large herbivores already present in the UK, like horses and cattle, as ecological proxies for extinct species such as bison and elk. This is with a view to these animals living more naturally with minimal human intervention in large rewilding projects, and bringing positive ecological changes to the landscape.
As Rewilding Britain’s Sara King explained in her introduction to Stephanie’s webinar on this topic:
“Lots of rewilding projects have some of these animals on their land already, but quite often the regulations and the legislation mean that it can be quite tricky to get those animals to act in a natural way. So one of the key areas of work for the Large Herbivore Working Group is how we can put the foundations and enablers in place for those projects… to hopefully encourage more natural behaviours”
Watch the video recording below to find out about practical challenges, emerging legal solutions, and opportunities for future reform. In particular, Stephanie discusses:
If you’d like to discuss any aspect of her presentation, or Lifescape’s work on large herbivores more generally, please reach out to Stephanie at stephanie.smith@lifescapeproject.org.
Stephanie will also be speaking at the Large Herbivores in Britain Conference taking place on 21 September 2026 at the University of Kent. Find out more and get your tickets here.
We're delighted that we've recently entered into a new conservation covenant with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) for their Lakenheath Fen site in Suffolk.
Rewilding Portugal and The Lifescape Project are pleased to announce the completion and publication of a major report, Legal Mechanism for Conservation and Restoration in Europe: Examples and Lessons for Portugal. Commissioned by Rewilding Portugal and authored by Lifescape, the report addresses one of the most persistent obstacles to nature restoration in Portugal: the absence of a legal tool dedicated to conservation and its ancillary objectives, capable of securing long-term commitments on privately owned land, regardless of future changes in ownership.