Rewilding Camps

Community Through Rewilding, Outdoor Activities, and Nature Experiences

Rewilding Camps

Community Through Rewilding, Outdoor Activities, and Nature Experiences

Background to the initiative

Across large parts of northern Sweden, there are still few opportunities for people to take part in ecological restoration in a meaningful way and deepen their relationship with the landscape around them. At the same time, interest in nature and rewilding is growing, but participation often remains limited to observing from a distance, short-term volunteering, or nature experiences without a clear connection to the long-term work of restoring landscapes and ecosystems.

To explore new pathways to participation, Rewilding Sweden has developed a series of rewilding camps and expeditions based around our demonstration areas near the Rödån and Hjuksån river systems in Västerbotten. The initiative combines practical restoration work with outdoor life, journeys through wilder landscapes, and place-based learning, to explore how ecological recovery and people’s relationship with nature can strengthen one another over time.

The work is being developed together with researchers, guides, and local partners, including in collaboration with the SLU Centre for Nature Interpretation and the Ecological Pilgrimage project. While the camps contribute to concrete restoration needs in rivers and surrounding landscapes, they also serve as a place to develop and test methods for long-term participation, stewardship, and local engagement in rewilding. Some formats are longer educational camps focused on shared learning, practical participation, and a deeper relationship with the landscape and restoration work. Others explore forms of regenerative tourism through smaller expeditions and guided wilderness experiences linked to local economies.

Together, the camps form part of Rewilding Sweden’s broader work within “Nature for People” and the initiative “Closer to Nature in Rödåbygden” (NNR), a long-term collaboration between local communities in Rödåbygden, research partners, guides, and Rewilding Sweden. The aim is to jointly develop and test new models for connecting ecological restoration, participation, and access to nature in living catchments. The ambition is to develop working methods that strengthen both landscapes and local communities on the ground, while also allowing the methods to be adapted and used in other catchments in Sweden and within the wider Rewilding Europe network.

Funding: Enetjärn Nature Foundation (ENF), Biodiversa+
Partner organisations: SLU Centre for Nature Interpretation, Umeå University, Hello Nature, WildSweden

Our vision for the rewilding camps

The challenge

While interest in nature and rewilding is growing, there are still few established models for how people can take part meaningfully in the long-term recovery of landscapes. Many restoration projects are technically and institutionally separated from people’s everyday lives, while nature experiences often become brief encounters without a clear connection to stewardship or local ecological work. At the same time, many rural areas need forms of participation that strengthen both ecological recovery and local social and economic resilience.

Our investment in rewilding camps is rooted in a desire to explore how restoration work, deeper nature experiences, local knowledge, and participation can be brought together in practical models that create long-term value for both landscapes and local communities.

The solution

The rewilding camps serve as a practical testing ground for new forms of participation in rewilding. Through camps, expeditions, hikes, and deeper nature experiences, the initiative explores how ecological restoration, closeness to nature, and local engagement can strengthen one another over time. The activities are linked to concrete restoration needs in the Rödå landscape, particularly around rivers, wetlands, and surrounding ecosystems.

Rather than being standalone events, the camps are designed as pathways into long-term engagement. They combine practical restoration work, simple outdoor life, shared learning, and place-based experiences, with the ambition of developing methods that can be organised locally and, over time, adapted to other catchments.

The initiative

Rewilding landscapes

The camps are directly connected to the ongoing restoration work within the Rödån catchment. Participants take part in practical efforts around rivers, wetlands, and surrounding ecosystems, thereby contributing to the concrete ecological recovery work already underway in the landscape.

Immersive nature experiences

Participants spend extended periods in nature through camp life, journeys through wild landscapes, evenings around the fire, and close encounters with the landscape’s seasonal changes. The initiative explores how direct and immersive nature experiences can create stronger and more lasting relationships with the place and the landscape around us.

Participation

The camps are designed to create meaningful pathways into participation in rewilding. Rather than relying solely on short-term volunteer efforts, the initiative explores how people can, over time, become more engaged in stewardship, learning, guiding, and locally rooted work for nature’s recovery.

Local values

The initiative also explores how rewilding can contribute to vibrant local economies through guiding, nature experiences, partnerships, and new forms of nature-based enterprise linked to the restoration of landscapes and ecosystems.

Scalable model

Rewilding camps are part of Closer to Nature Rödån (NNR), a three-year development initiative exploring how ecological restoration, participation, and access to nature can strengthen one another in a living landscape.
The long-term ambition is to develop working methods and models that can also be adapted and used in other catchments.