| Literature DB >> 33983560 |
Henrike Schulte To Bühne1,2, Nathalie Pettorelli3, Michael Hoffmann4.
Abstract
More than 30 years after it was first proposed as a biodiversity conservation strategy, rewilding remains a controversial concept. There is currently little agreement about what the goals of rewilding are, and how these are best achieved, limiting the utility of rewilding in mainstream conservation. Achieving consensus about rewilding requires agreeing about what "wild" means, but many different definitions exist, reflecting the diversity of values in conservation. There are three key debates that must be addressed to find a consensual definition of "wild": (1) to which extent can people and "wild" nature co-exist?; (2) how much space does "wild" nature need? and (3) what kinds of "wild" nature do we value? Depending on the kinds of "wild" nature rewilding aims to create, rewilding policy will be faced with managing different opportunities and risks for biodiversity and people.Entities:
Keywords: Human-nature relationships; Rewilding; Wilderness; Wildness
Mesh:
Year: 2021 PMID: 33983560 PMCID: PMC8651963 DOI: 10.1007/s13280-021-01560-8
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Ambio ISSN: 0044-7447 Impact factor: 5.129
A non-exhaustive list of opportunities and risks of different definitions of “wild” for rewilding policy
| Dimension of “wild” | Potential position | Opportunities | Risks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Role of people | People and “wild” nature cannot, or have limited opportunity to, co-exist in a shared space | Minimal anthropogenic pressure on biodiversity Potential for entirely self-sustaining ecosystems | Exclusion of people and their artefacts from rewilded areas likely to be necessary Reduced engagement and support from local communities who could benefit from rewilding and rewilded sites |
| People and “wild” nature can co-exist in a shared space | Allows integrating (some) human activities and legacies in rewilded sites More locations suitable for rewilding | Potential for increased human-wildlife conflict in rewilded sites where people are present | |
| Spatial scale | All scales | Rewilding possible in areas with a high degree of intensive human land use (e.g. cities) | Smaller sites may not be able to deliver on a large range of ecosystem functions |
| Only large sites | Able to support more species and ecosystem functions | Limited scope and utility for rewilding in densely populated countries | |
| Acceptable “wild” nature | Historical ecosystems | Allows identifying reference systems, and hence relatively easy to define and measure success | Similar to restoration; means rewilding would have little additional value as a conservation approach |
| Any ecosystem that can autonomously respond to external and internal change, including novel ecosystems | Can cope with inevitable environmental and ecological change | More difficult to define what successful rewilding looks like |
Fig. 1Flowchart showing the consequences of different definitions of “wild” for the concept of rewilding