VOICES: A new short film called ‘Rewild Your Word’, narrated by Megan McCubbin, highlights the importance of our pollinators and the massive opportunity we have to save them with the power of wildflowers. Its animator Ben Sinclair of Fire Lily Studio talks us through the film and the issues raised.

Our pollinators, as many already know, are in a lot of danger from habitat loss, climate change and the decline of biodiversity. But rather than focusing on this grave thought, Fire Lily Studio and Wildflower Favours wanted to emphasise the massive opportunity that surrounds us, even in our personal lives - rewilding. Specifically, doing so with the enormous potential of wildflowers: a vital source of food for pollinators that anyone can grow at home or in their community. To encapsulate this message, Fire Lily Studio has released a short animation, ‘Rewild Your world - Save our Pollinators’.

Tidy, mown lawns have dominated garden culture for a very long time, but in this era of great peril for wildlife, such a monoculture needs to be transformed. You may see the similarities between the erasure of rainforest for cattle farms or palm oil - replacing great diversity, for stark uniformity. Instead, just imagine if the huge expanse of garden space across the country was replenished with a more diverse, flower rich habitat? 97% of native wildflower grasslands in the UK have been lost since the 1930s, although we have the power to restore this blanket of biodiversity and prevent a catastrophic decline of many foundational species for our environment. #Nomowmay has become a popular hashtag over the past few years, encouraging gardeners and councils to leave their lawnmowers in the shed for the month of May - a prime time for wildflowers to start blooming and pollinators to get feasting. However, such an important action needs to become even more widespread for effective change to happen, and perhaps it could extend beyond the lawn.

Rewilding can happen in more places than just gardens or parks. Having a garden is often quite a privilege - 1 in 8 British households do not have one - whilst those living in dense urban areas may feel excluded or powerless in the struggle to support our bees and butterflies. But this is simply not the case - wildflowers can thrive in poor soil, meaning they can be very easy to grow outside of green spaces. Unfortunately, this has also led to their demonisation as ‘weeds’ and ‘pests’, forming a culture of slight fear and annoyance for a family of native plants that is so crucial to the UK’s ecosystem. Such a perception must shift if we do not want our bees and butterflies to become extinct, from one of hatred and indifference to one of reverence and gratitude. We are effectively dependent on these plants, for without them there are no pollinators, and without pollinators, we will lose a functioning ecosystem and food system. This growing respect for wildflowers can happen not only in gardens but in urban communities, too.

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Within urban spaces, there are so many ways to help our pollinators, whether it be a plant pot on a balcony or a seed bomb launched into a brownfield site. The goal is to find whatever space you can spare, either inside or outside your home and fill it with the life-giving force of wildflowers. You can set up bee hotels - which are easy to buy online or create yourself - or upcycle containers to create vessels for pollen - that old broken kettle you were about to throw away could become the perfect home for a collection of oxeye daisies or dandelions. The impacts of such actions are then exponentially multiplied when achieved as a community. Transforming disused areas of a town, such as a roundabout or a road verge, into a thriving wildflower meadow can become much more possible when kick-started by a group. Whether this is through planning with your council, or through the more rogue methods of guerilla gardening, the most effective action is always achieved through engagement with others. Local councils can often be slow change-makers, but through persistent demand from their communities, greener spaces and an embrace of wildflowers can be achieved. Why not team up with your neighbours to email your council and ask for the strip of grass on your street to not be mown this year? Some may say it looks untidy - as demonstrated recently by Medway council scrapping No Mow May - but when put into perspective, the survival of the world’s most important insects is probably more important than a neatly trimmed patch of grass. And who can argue with the beauty of a wildflower meadow?

Eventually, if we all do what we can, towns and cities will become more entwined with pollinator habitats, forming a web of life and biodiversity that threads through houses, tower blocks, parks and roads. Our hope is that not only will gardens and countryside become crisscrossed with ‘b-lines’ - an initiative by Buglife to map the insect highways of our country - but urban spaces, too.

Accompanying this film is its hashtag - #rewildyourworld. A place where anyone can post and record their rewilding projects, from gardens, to communities, to balconies. We hope it becomes a hub for rewilding inspiration and ideas, where we can all participate in the great blanketing of our country in flower rich grassland once again.

Creator of Fire Lily Studio, Ben Sinclair is an animator creating short films that imagine a regenerative future. His latest film, Rewild Your World, narrated by Megan McCubbin, highlights the importance of our pollinators, and the massive opportunity we have to save them with the power of wildflowers.

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