rewilding

Created: 2022-12-28
Status: #soil
Last Edited: 2022-12-28
Topic: environment environmentalism

What is rewilding?

Rewilding is a conservation movement that seeks to reintroduce native species into their natural habitats, restore the ecological processes they rely on, and create more resilient ecosystems.

Rewilding focuses on restoring natural habitats, often by removing human activities or interventions that disrupt or prevent the restoration of natural cycles. This includes the reintroduction of large predators or apex species and re-establishing connectivity between fragmented ecosystems.

Rewilding also has a social aspect, as it seeks to build an understanding and appreciation for nature among humans in order to foster a better relationship between humans and the environment.

Who are the most significant voices arguing for rewilding?

  1. George Monbiot – Monbiot is an environmentalist, journalist, and author of several books on rewilding, including Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life. His work focuses on the need to restore large predators and other species to their native habitats in order to create more resilient ecosystems.

  2. Dave Foreman – Foreman is an environmental activist and co-founder of the Rewilding Institute, a nonprofit organization that works to protect natural areas and promote rewilding. He has written numerous books on the subject, including Rewilding North America: A Vision for Conservation in the 21st Century.

  3. Carolyn Finney – Finney is an author, professor, and public speaker who focuses on environmental equity and justice. She has written extensively about rewilding as a tool for restoring ecological balance as well as a way to promote greater understanding between humans and nature.

  4. Michael Soulé – Soulé is a conservation biologist who is often referred to as the "Father of Conservation Biology". He has been a strong advocate for rewilding since the 1970s, when he first proposed reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park.

Who are the most significant voices arguing against rewilding?

  1. Troy Mader – Mader is a wildlife biologist and the leader of the National Wildlife Federation’s opposition to rewilding. He believes that rewilding could lead to negative impacts on the environment, such as increased predation on endangered species or competition between predators and prey.

  2. Timothy Clark - Clark is a professor of conservation biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and opposes rewilding because he believes it could have unintended consequences for vulnerable ecosystems. He also argues that restoring natural ecosystems may be more expensive than preserving them in their current state.

  3. Peter Kareiva – Kareiva is a chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy, an organization dedicated to protecting natural areas. He has argued against rewilding on the grounds that it could result in reduced biodiversity, as well as lead to the spread of invasive species and disease.

  4. John Loomis – Loomis is an economist who has written extensively about the economic costs of rewilding projects. He argues that restoring large predators and other species can be expensive and may not be worth the potential benefits they provide in terms of ecological balance or public appreciation for nature.

Famous rewilding projects

  1. Wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park – This project was initiated in 1995 to restore the wolf population in Yellowstone National Park after they had been extirpated by hunting and trapping. The project was highly successful and has resulted in the restoration of the park’s ecosystem which had been disrupted by the absence of wolves.

  2. European Beaver Reintroduction – This project began in 2003 with the aim of restoring beaver populations to parts of Europe where they had been hunted to extinction. Beavers play an important role in creating wetlands, which provide habitat for a wide variety of species, and this project has helped to restore some of these lost habitats.

  3. Isle Royale Wolf Reintroduction – This project began in 2018 with the aim of restoring wolves to Isle Royale National Park, an island in Lake Superior, after their numbers had declined due to human activity and predation from other species. The success of this project could provide valuable insight into how rewilding can be used to restore ecosystems that have been disrupted by human activity.

  4. Knepp Estate - This project is a 3,500-acre estate in West Sussex, England. The estate is owned by the Knepp Castle Estate and managed by the Knepp Wildland Project, a conservation and rewilding project initiated by owners Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree in 2001. The project has seen the reintroduction of species such as Red and Fallow Deer, Exmoor Ponies, Tamworth Pigs, Longhorn Cattle and European Beavers to the land. The estate is part of an ambitious experiment to restore habitats, sequester carbon and create a sustainable local economy through agri-tourism.

.