Mosaic

Join us on a journey into wildness

• Donate anything you can to show that people value land as a habitat for life
• Donate £20 and I'll send you local rewilding ideas
• Donate £50 or more and I'll give you the option of becoming an early adopter at half price
  
  Please note - Details of your donation will be passed on to me (Mosaic), if you opt-into 'project owner marketing', in order for me to administer and contact you in connection with this project.

Our first steps...

I am making rewilding more accessible, by:
-> Rewilding more land
-> Connecting people with the wonder of life being restored
-> Demonstrating that land has value as a habitat for life

Mosaic gives you the opportunity to adopt a plot of land, bring this to life, seeing and experiencing it grow wilder. 

The aim is for this to act as a catalyst. I do not only want to restore the wild to our land, but our imagination. Mosaic aims to recapture the magic of seeing and feeling part of the life that can thrive around us — taking people on a journey into wildness.

Mosaic will make this possible by working with landowners to make it easy to start or expand rewilding, a couple of acres at a time.

Why biodiversity is critical 

Wildness and biodiversity enrich our imagination. It is also the basis of much of our economy. One calculation put the value at over 33 trillion dollars a year. Another described this as “a serious underestimate of infinity”. But a quarter of all species are now at risk of extinction.

This is not just about the loss of jungle and savannah far away, but the loss of wildness on our doorstep. There is the sense that the UK is a green and pleasant land. But our concept of green has changed over time.

Glancing out of car windows, it is easy to mistake blurs of fields and pasture for wildness. In reality, these often support just a handful of species. They are propped up by pesticides and strange financial instruments. The UK is, in fact, one of the most nature depleted countries in Europe. “We have led the world in degrading the natural environment,” as Dr Andy Purvis of the Natural History Museum described in his research for the Biodiversity Intactness Index. Britain has lost nearly half its biodiversity since the industrial revolution.

There is growing pressure to reverse the loss of biodiversity. Internationally, attention will focus on the UN Biodiversity Conference at the end of April. In the UK the government has already started to make changes to subsidies to make it more economical for farmers to adopt ecologically beneficial practices, such as rewilding. 

How rewilding makes a difference

‘Rewilding’, is an idea that is transformative and growing in popularity. Rewilding Britain - the national charity - describes it as “restoring ecosystems to the point where nature can take care of itself, and restoring our relationship with the natural world.” For me, it is about being able to restore wonder and bring back life into our world.

It is possible to create change. In fact, it can be as simple as leaving the land alone. Or it can involve the careful curation and soft intervention of thousands of acres, such as Wild Ennerdale in Cumbria.

Exciting projects are springing up all over the UK. From local wildflower meadows to plans to create “one of the world’s biggest and best nature reserves” in East Anglia. 

My story

When I was young, I used to collect feathers. Like many children, I found birds fascinating and magical. An easy wildness all around, yet just out of reach.

Now I’m grown up, it can be difficult to recapture the magic of life surrounding us. Surprise encounters with foxes and bursts of cherry blossoms can bring it back for a moment, but it is easy to lose sight of the wonder amongst concrete and car horns.

I felt a strong pressure to get a 'normal' job and ended up working in a business school for most of my professional life. Alongside this I followed my interests academically, studying a Postgraduate Certificate in Biodiverstiy Conservation and Management, and an MSc in Sustainability and Adaptation Planning.

During this time sustainability grew in prominence as a mainstream topic but the worlds of ecology and business still seem to talk different languages. I feel there is an opportunity to address this and amplify the positive change already starting to emerge through rewilding.

Why a business instead of a charity

Longterm, I am aiming to create this as a business to reverse how life is valued. 

Currently life is valuable if it can be reduced to commodities to be bought and sold. Land is valued based on how it can be exploited and simplified to a single product: cotton, meat, ore. 

Instead, I want to demonstrate that people will value land for the life it can support. This then as a business can demonstrate a market for restoration and show that people will pay to be able to be reconnected with the complexity and magic of life. 

What this crowdfunder will help me do

I am aiming to raise £4,000. This will allow me to accelerate progress: Secure land, survey and track change, develop vivid storytelling, build a platform and bring on my first customers. Maybe you :)

Please note that - The Funding Network is a UK registered charity and will collect donations on behalf of Mosaic through Crowdfunder. TFN will distribute all donations to Mosaic, less an administration fee of 5%. TFN will not contact you in relation to your donation.