Water voles, frogs and foxes could soon be thriving free in London.
The mayor of the British capital Sadiq Khan, known for his ecological commitments, announces that he wants to let nature take back its rights over the city through a plan for the "
rewilding
"
of
the city.
The report of this project, launched in December 2021, the day after COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, was published last March.
Fourteen experts commissioned by the town hall have drawn up recommendations to "
reconnect people with nature and fight against the climate emergency
".
At the heart of the project, the restoration of wildlife in the center of the city by recreating a suitable habitat to attract animals naturally.
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“
The vision is to create a self-sustaining and self-regulating ecosystem, with little human intervention in the long term
,” Nathalie Pettorelli, scientist at the Zoological Society of London, told British magazine
Time Out
.
London is already home to "
more than 16,000 species
" in more than 1,600 protected sites, Citizen Zoo co-founder Elliot Newton told
Time Out
.
By way of comparison, Paris is home to 1,300 wild animal species, according to the town hall.
However, “
over the past 30 years, we have lost 97% of our water voles
,” Elliot Newton lamented.
"Guardians of the River"
A first mission will take place next autumn with the reintroduction of a pair of breeding beavers in a park in west London, according to the BBC.
Once found across the whole of Britain, these semi-aquatic rodents were hunted to extinction by the 16th century.
After 400 years of disappearance, the return of these long-toothed engineers, famous for their construction of dams, will make it possible to reduce the risk of floods.
These little beasts will be able to criss-cross the city through “
natural corridors
” along train lines and industrial wastelands, informs
The Guardian
.
Other wild animals, such as wading birds considered '
guardians of the river
' by Elliot Newton, sandpipers and lapwings (bird species), will be released in parts of the Thames Estuary to create wetlands, favorable to the development of a wild ecosystem.
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The goal is to bring nature closer to people.
"
A lot of people have never seen a beaver in their life
," Roísín Campbell-Palmer, Beaver Trust restoration manager and reintroduction expert,
told
Time Out .
Londoners will be encouraged to bring nature into their gardens, balconies or windows.
A way to “
improve their daily life
” and provide them with “
health and well-being
”, assures the report.
The experts thus intend to fight against “
poor air quality and a lack of access to green spaces
”.
Limit the effects of global warming
This “ rewilding
” plan
also aims to respond to “
the climatic and ecological emergency
”.
For Nathalie Pettorelli, "
nature can capture and store the city's carbon efficiently and profitably
".
This is particularly the case of beavers which by "
manipulating the habitat to create wetlands rich in biodiversity, can help combat and adapt to the impacts of climate change
", such as "
mitigating drought by retaining more water on the land
,” said Sean McCormack, veterinarian and chairman of the Ealing Wildlife Group in a statement.
Bringing back nature can help '
cool cities during heat waves
', '
reduce air pollution
' and '
alter river flows, thereby helping to mitigate flooding
', the report says. .
Local authorities, who have already invested more than 28 million pounds (more than 32 million euros) in the environment, must now decide on the recommendations of experts to implement.
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In an official statement, Mayor Sadiq Khan pledged "
to ensure that London is at the forefront of efforts to reverse the trend of declining biodiversity and the destruction of nature
".
