WildOne: Biodiversity Voluntourism for Wellbeing
A collaboration with Citizen Zoo, a leading urban rewilding organisation in London, WildOne explores how conservation and wellbeing can be brought together to promote voluntourism and more sustainable lifestyles.
Services
Service, UX
Collaborator
Citizen Zoo
Year
2025
In the UK alone, more than 8,000 people engaged in green social prescribing last year, reflecting the growing role of nature in alleviating stress, anxiety, and isolation. Yet nature itself is in crisis: as of 2020, one in four UK mammals faced extinction, while global forest loss continues to erode one of our most effective carbon sinks.
Against this backdrop, the urgency of the UK’s “30 by 30” biodiversity commitment — the pledge to conserve 30% of land and sea for wildlife by 2030 — underscores the need for new forms of public participation in rewilding. This dual crisis of human wellbeing and ecological decline shaped the project’s ambition to strengthen engagement with rewilding and demonstrate how sustainability can enhance human wellbeing.
Process
WildOne applies a planet-centric design methodology, positioning nature as a persona, stakeholder, and storyteller within mapping and narrative tools. This approach ensures ecological voices are represented alongside human perspectives in both design and decision-making.
The process drew on design futures to use trends and speculation in expanding possibilities for regenerative urban tourism; systems thinking to address the complexity of change; and co-creation to democratise decision-making and reduce stakeholder assumptions.
At its core, the project seeks to reframe sustainability from a perceived burden into a source of personal and collective benefit. By highlighting biodiversity as a vital climate solution, it advances several UN Sustainable Development Goals while modelling inclusive, future-oriented systems of care.
WildOne in Action
WildOne envisions a future where rewilding and wellbeing are seamlessly integrated into everyday urban life.
For individuals facing stress, burnout or anxiety, WildOne’s platform curates local, nature-based activities that both restore mental health and regenerate ecosystems—bringing the benefits of nature into the city through rewilding.
For conservation groups, WildOne offers a specialised tool to manage activities, measure participation and impact, and strengthen funding bids by evidencing links between biodiversity and public health.
Our vision is a future where biodiversity and accessible nature support mental health, and where urban tourism becomes regenerative rather than extractive. By making conservation relevant and rewarding, the service encourages wider public participation and lays the groundwork for a regenerative economy that local authorities can adapt and scale globally.
Team members: Shania Firdaus, Sijia Li, Viva Chanyam
