Rewilding Britain is awarding more than £150k to projects across Britain to help combat a drop in nature connection when young people hit their teenage years.

“Research has uncovered what has been coined the ‘teenage dip’ in nature connection, and it’s an increasingly concerning phenomenon,” says rewilding manager Sara King.

“Children are often naturally drawn to nature – think mud pies, sliding down grassy banks, making daisy chains, chasing birds. But then suddenly there’s this dip when the teen years hit, which can last well into adulthood, of disconnection and disinterest in nature.”

The charity’s twice-yearly Rewilding Innovation Fund is granting up to £15k to eleven rewilding projects from the Scottish Highlands to inner city London to help address this.

These projects are focused on bringing the benefits of rewilding to children and young people through rewilding education and play spaces, interactive rewilding education and youth-led rewilding.

“These projects are doing amazing, innovative things to engage young people in rewilding, whether that’s offering outdoor education in wild spaces, bringing the joys of rewilding into previously managed spaces or using technology to educate young people on what rewilding means and how it can shape their future.”

They include one by youth organisation the Scouts, which manages Adventure Centres across England and will use the funding to reconnect these centres with nature and bring in the principles of rewilding.

“The new framework will give Scouts the chance to learn new skills, including practical nature recovery techniques, understanding and tracking biodiversity gain and continuing to explore their connection to nature,” says Bex Craske, the Scouts’ group sustainability manager.

Essex-based charity The Wilderness Foundation has also been awarded funding to support its outdoor education programme, and youth-led non-profit Youngwilders will be using funding to expand Overgrowth, the UK’s only Youth Rewilding Summit which launched in 2022.