{"id":123,"date":"2016-01-21T11:42:19","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T11:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/?p=123"},"modified":"2016-01-21T11:42:19","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T11:42:19","slug":"rewilding-wild-by-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/rewilding-wild-by-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Rewilding: wild by nature?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rewilding has been causing a storm in recent months: debates over the reintroduction of beavers, wolves and lynx; renewed challenges to food and farming systems; recent calls to shake up what has been termed a \u2018feudal system\u2019 of land-ownership in Britain<\/a>. The concept and practice of rewilding seems to generate a stream of (often quite polarised) opinions and sentiments \u2013 some romantic, others quite militant. So why is this; why is the term \u2018rewilding\u2019 so provocative in a way that, say, \u2018restoration\u2019 is not? Is it because the term is not very concrete or specific (even a bit \u2018plastic\u2019[1]<\/a>) where many meanings can and have been ascribed to it? Or is it that the core principles behind rewilding are genuinely challenging? Perhaps it\u2019s a bit of both.<\/p>\n

So what exactly is rewilding and where are academics and researchers going with it? In Britain, rewilding is often defined as \u2018the mass restoration of ecosystems\u2019[2]<\/a> and there is usually an implication (or hope!) that this will involve, at some point in time, the reintroduction of a missing keystone species or apex predator. Although not radically different in its vision, the European organisation Rewilding Europe<\/a> omits the term \u2018restoration\u2019 from its literature since for them \u2018Rewilding is not really about going back in time. It is instead about giving more room to wild, spontaneous nature to develop, in a modern society.\u2019[3]<\/a> And yet, is not the \u2018re\u2019 in rewilding quite confusing then? Should we not just be talking about wilding?<\/p>\n

Despite the commitment to \u2018novel\u2019 ecosystems, there is still often an idealisation of past states of nature within the rewilding movement. Over the past 10 years much of the scientific literature (particularly from America) has focussed on what is called Pleistocene rewilding \u2013 that is, ecological restoration based on a particular historical epoch (approx. 13,000 BP) that saw high densities of megafauna spread across the globe \u2013 including in Britain. Not all advocate the extremities of Pleistocene rewilding (e.g. bringing back the woolly mammoth!) but the majority of rewilding advocates at least agree that past ecosystems like those of the Pleistocene can provide inspiration for reflecting on the current state of nature, and challenge what has been termed \u2018ecological forgetfulness\u2019 or \u2018shifting baseline syndrome\u2019[4]<\/a> particularly as it appears in current conservation policy and practice (see recent complaints of the management strategies of Exmoor and Dartmoor National Park and new visions[5]<\/a>).<\/p>\n

As well as questioning the \u2018re\u2019 in rewilding it\u2019s also important to look at what counts as \u2018wild\u2019 for rewilders. The term \u2018wild\u2019 has been generally understood as unmanaged nature (not managed by humans[6]<\/a>) and one of central tenets of rewilding involves humans standing back to allow nature to govern itself. As Trees for Life director Alan Watson Featherstone (spoke recently at Plymouth University<\/a>) puts it: rewilding \u2018has come to encompass the whole process of returning ecosystems to a state of ecological health and dynamic balance, making them self-sustaining, without the need for ongoing human management.\u2019[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

This is idea of \u2018unmanaged nature\u2019 and the emphasis on ecological processes<\/em> rather than scale and territory is an interesting one, for it doesn\u2019t exclude human activity and occupation in the way the term \u2018wilderness\u2019 does. It also retains some of the \u2018wildness\u2019 that is so fundamental to rewilding principles. So could rewilding forge some new alliances, and encourage both humans and non-human actors (plants, animals) to co-create spaces through experimental \u2018wild\u2019 means? Could ecology be (re)politicised through rewilding so that baselines and \u2018ideal\u2019 states of nature go out the window \u2013 one big wild experiment?<\/p>\n

There are some very fertile areas of rewilding for the arts and social sciences. In its vision statement, Rewilding Europe says that \u2018natural processes\u2026create the necessary space for all of our original animals and plants, including man\u2019[8]<\/a> but critical disciplines could really lend at this point by asking what is meant by \u2018natural\u2019 and what are these \u2018original\u2019 plants and animals \u2013 because we certainly can\u2019t go back to the Garden of Eden! The natural is the wild. Wild by nature.<\/p>\n

Cara Clancy, PhD candidate\u00a0<\/strong>
\nSchool of Geography, Earth and Environmental Science,\u00a0Plymouth University<\/p>\n

Twitter @caraclancy<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Dolly J\u00f8rgensen, 2014<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> The definition given by Rewilding Britain http:\/\/www.rewildingbritain.org.uk\/about\/<\/a> and prominent\u00a0 advocates like George Monbiot http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2015\/jul\/16\/britain-wild-nature-rewilding-ecosystems-heal-lives<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> https:\/\/www.rewildingeurope.com\/frequently-asked-questions\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> The idea was first proposed by Kahn & Friedman (1995) but given the title \u201cshifting baseline syndrome\u201d by Pauly in 1995.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> http:\/\/www.moortrees.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Moor-Trees-Vision-2015.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> https:\/\/www.rewildingeurope.com\/frequently-asked-questions\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> http:\/\/treesforlife.org.uk\/forest\/missing-species-rewilding\/rewilding\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> https:\/\/www.rewildingeurope.com\/about\/vision\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rewilding has been causing a storm in recent months: debates over the reintroduction of beavers, wolves and lynx; renewed challenges to food and farming systems; recent calls to shake up what has been termed a \u2018feudal system\u2019 of land-ownership in Britain. The concept and practice of rewilding seems to generate a stream of (often quite polarised) opinions and sentiments \u2013 some romantic, others quite militant. So why is this; why is the term \u2018rewilding\u2019 so provocative in a way that,Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,12,5],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-research","tag-rewilding","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}