So today’s thought of the day is a brief amalgamation of contemplations surrounding the issue of rewilding – an ideology that’s stirred up a lot of mostly healthy debate about how to go about restoring our deficient and degraded ecosystems in Britain.

As an advocate of this cause, having spent countless hours walking through barren habitats devoid of nutrients and any sign of wildness, I’ve been watching the discussions unfold with great interest. My first observation: it’s really captured the imagination of the country and got the masses talking about our wildlife, its conservation and how we can improve it for the future, so that can only be a good thing. But as the commentary gathers pace, I’m increasingly hearing misguided and ill-informed opinion on the matter, including…

Comparisons made between us and the rest of mainland Europe, overlooking the minor detail that unlike much of the continent, we are an island and cannot leave it up to fate to allow certain species to return naturally.

The dialogue has drifted from its conservation-based roots and become a culturally driven debate. When looking at the initiative’s goals and philosophy, it’s hard to criticise it in the context of purely conservational terms.

More must be done to dispel the myths surrounding the reintroduction of the likes of Lynx and Wolf. Neither are even remotely likely to cause widespread panic and injury as some reports have suggested. Furthermore, the ‘survival of the fittest’ theory has been wrongly applied to explain and justify the demise of such species, when in fact, it is ultimately the artificial intervention of man that has caused their extinction.

And finally, more must be done to promote a completely new business model to the farming community, in which wildlife tourism is the focal point. Much of the current rhetoric stems from conventional, traditional modes of thinking and requires a blank canvas of mindset.