Rewilding the City: Collaborative Governance and Local Action in Islington, London
Research Team: Audrey Alejandro (Project lead, LSE); Imogen Hamilton Jones (LSE); Siân Moxon (London Metropolitan School); Flora Cornish (LSE)
Funding: Global Sustainability Research Fund
Partners: Islington Council, Young Wilders.
Eighty-four percent of the UK population lives in cities. For urban residents to experience the value of wildlife, understand the urgency of biodiversity loss, and counter feelings of climate disempowerment, local action that enables wildlife recovery and strengthens community engagement is essential.
Rewilding — a nature recovery approach that has gained significant momentum in the UK over the last two decades — has traditionally been associated with rural landscapes. Yet in recent years, local authorities and community-led initiatives have increasingly explored its potential in urban environments, seeking to enhance climate resilience, biodiversity, and public wellbeing.
However, most discussions of urban rewilding remain centred on its ecological and technical dimensions, such as habitat design, species translocation, and biodiversity monitoring. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the governance structures that determine what forms of rewilding are possible, or how these systems can be navigated and mobilised to support urban nature recovery.
Understanding the multi-level governance systems within which rewilding takes place — and how these can be mobilised — is crucial for local actors leading bottom-up initiatives that connect biodiversity action with civic engagement. These frameworks establish the rights, rules, and responsibilities underpinning environmental policy, regulate land use, allocate resources, and shape the possibilities and limits of collective action. Exploring how councils and community groups understand and engage with these systems reveals the social and political dimensions of urban rewilding, including both the opportunities available to local actors and the constraints they face.
This project takes as a case study Islington, where rewilding is particularly challenging. Islington is the most densely populated borough in the UK, contains only 12% green space, and is among the boroughs most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. At the same time, relationships between local authorities and community groups illustrate a wide range of council-led and community-driven rewilding initiatives across streets and public open spaces.
Project Aims:
Funding: Global Sustainability Research Fund
Partners: Islington Council, Young Wilders.
Eighty-four percent of the UK population lives in cities. For urban residents to experience the value of wildlife, understand the urgency of biodiversity loss, and counter feelings of climate disempowerment, local action that enables wildlife recovery and strengthens community engagement is essential.
Rewilding — a nature recovery approach that has gained significant momentum in the UK over the last two decades — has traditionally been associated with rural landscapes. Yet in recent years, local authorities and community-led initiatives have increasingly explored its potential in urban environments, seeking to enhance climate resilience, biodiversity, and public wellbeing.
However, most discussions of urban rewilding remain centred on its ecological and technical dimensions, such as habitat design, species translocation, and biodiversity monitoring. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the governance structures that determine what forms of rewilding are possible, or how these systems can be navigated and mobilised to support urban nature recovery.
Understanding the multi-level governance systems within which rewilding takes place — and how these can be mobilised — is crucial for local actors leading bottom-up initiatives that connect biodiversity action with civic engagement. These frameworks establish the rights, rules, and responsibilities underpinning environmental policy, regulate land use, allocate resources, and shape the possibilities and limits of collective action. Exploring how councils and community groups understand and engage with these systems reveals the social and political dimensions of urban rewilding, including both the opportunities available to local actors and the constraints they face.
This project takes as a case study Islington, where rewilding is particularly challenging. Islington is the most densely populated borough in the UK, contains only 12% green space, and is among the boroughs most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. At the same time, relationships between local authorities and community groups illustrate a wide range of council-led and community-driven rewilding initiatives across streets and public open spaces.
Project Aims:
- Bringing social science perspectives into rewilding research and practice
- Mapping the UK governance systems that shape rewilding, including regulatory frameworks, public agencies, and multi-level governance structures
- Exploring how local councils and community groups experience, interpret, and mobilise these governance systems in the context of urban rewilding
- Understanding how urban rewilding can connect biodiversity recovery with civic engagement and local participation