Restoring functional ecosystems is crucial to reversing the global biodiversity and climate crises. The concept of rewilding has gained increasing attention as a proactive tool for achieving ...ecosystem restoration quickly and at scale. However, the science of rewilding has been criticised for being largely theory-led rather than evidence based, a factor that continues to stymy policy actions. Here, we conduct a scoping review with the aim of mapping the nature and extent of the peer-reviewed literature that has measured outcomes of European rewilding projects. Our findings reveal significant growth in this area, although with a geographical bias towards the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries. Our synthesis of evidence shows that, although rewilding is not a biodiversity or climate panacea, there is a growing evidence base in support of theoretical propositions that it can restore biodiversity, deliver ecosystem services and support nature-based economies. To advance the field and address spatial disparity in reporting, we propose the establishment of country-specific networks of monitored and data-driven experimental rewilding projects, focused on national contexts. We also propose that the concept of standardizing the assessment of rewilding success across sites should be approached with caution, considering the site-specific and self-defining nature of rewilding outcomes. Lastly, we emphasize the importance of careful consideration by practitioners in terms of large herbivore refaunation efforts in Europe. Implementing comprehensive long-term plans to manage herbivore populations and address unforeseen effects is essential to mitigate welfare concerns, overgrazing, and reputational risks, while also maximizing biodiversity gains.
Reintroduction is a highly effective strategy for rebuilding wildlife populations and restoring their ecosystem functions, but impacts on function are poorly documented. We addressed this gap by ...comparing the species richness and visit rate of mammals and birds that interact with rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) latrines at two locations in Nepal: Chitwan National Park, with a stable rhino population, and Shuklaphanta National Park, where a rhino reintroduction program was conducted from 2003 to 2018. Camera-traps were used to monitor visitors to 30 latrines in both parks from 2020 to 2021 (669 camera-trap days). The reintroduction of rhinos to Shuklaphanta National Park has played a crucial role in restoring an important resource for other mammal and bird species. Despite a large difference in rhino abundance, and differences in the size, quality and some of the nutritional contents of latrines between sites, there were no significant differences in species richness of latrine visitors and in the frequency of most behaviours at the latrines. Visit rates of animals were higher at the reintroduction site, confirming latrines to be important, limited resources. Overall, 4 mammal and 4 bird species used the latrines to consume the dung, or insects and plants growing on and around the dung; a further two mammal species interacted only indirectly with the latrines. These findings provide evidence that even at low population densities, rhino reintroduction can successfully restore an important ecological function and provide vital resources for other species. Our study supports the rewilding of large-bodied animals to mitigate ecosystem deterioration.
Prey animals may lack appropriate predator avoidance behaviours to novel predators, which has contributed to the decline of many species worldwide following human introduction of novel predators. ...Excluding novel predators from conservation reserves has been used to attempt to recover naïve species with mixed success. However, in the absence of predators, prey naiveté can be exacerbated. Reintroducing native predators has been suggested as a solution to addressing this problem and may act as a stepping stone to improve behavioural responses to novel predators. We tested the behavioural responses of two prey species, the burrowing bettong, Bettongia lesueur, and spinifex hopping mouse, Notomys alexis, to the reintroduction of a native predator, the western quoll, Dasyurus geoffroii, and determined whether exposure to a native predator improved their antipredator responses to introduced feral cats, Felis catus. Quoll-exposed bettongs spent less time engaged in inattentive foraging behaviours compared to control (nonpredator exposed) bettongs but did not discriminate between predator and nonpredator visual or olfactory cues (native or novel). Quoll-exposed spinifex hopping mice modified their foraging in open habitats and increased wariness in the presence of quoll stimuli, whereas cat-exposed hopping mice only exhibited increased wariness in the presence of cat stimuli. Our results show that reintroductions of native predators improved general antipredator responses in native prey species, but there was only weak evidence that this led to an improved response to introduced predators. However, reintroducing native predators improved general antipredator behaviour in ontogenetically naïve populations which may make them more suitable for releases outside conservation fences where novel predators are present.
•Reintroductions of native predators improve general antipredator responses in prey•Quoll-exposed bettongs spent less time in inattentive foraging than controls•Quoll-exposed hopping mice recognized foraging risk in open habitats•Limited evidence whether this improves discrimination towards novel predators
Agricultural intensification is a major cause of biodiversity loss. Biodiversity conservation and restoration generally involve human intervention. In comparison, rewilding, a radically different ...approach to address the erosion of biodiversity, aims to increase the ability of ecological processes to act with little or no human intervention, and thus to enhance biodiversity and the supply of ecosystem services. Rewilding, including that of agricultural systems, has been examined from ecological and social perspectives but rarely from an agricultural perspective.
In this review of the literature and case studies, we (i) analyse whether and how rewilding of agricultural systems, particularly livestock systems, can help conserve and restore biodiversity and offer new prospects, and (ii) identify research questions about rewilding of agricultural systems.
We researched literature in the Web of Science Core Collection that focussed on rewilding, agriculture, and interactions between them. We also identified agricultural rewilding projects established for at least five years in the United Kingdom (UK) to analyse their approaches and characteristics.
Agricultural rewilding is an emerging form of land use that we conceptually position on a gradient between agroecology and rewilding. It combines restoration of ecological processes with some degree of agricultural production, most often of herbivores. A selection of 11 agricultural rewilding projects in the UK had areas of 121–4402 ha. The projects targeted 48 key species/breeds, 24 of which were ecosystem engineers: 19 grazers, four pig breeds and Eurasian beavers. The main actions to enhance rewilding were extensive grazing and habitat restoration. The main economic activities were meat or animal sales, tourism and education programmes. Agricultural rewilding may provide a multifunctional model to which livestock systems with herbivores may transition to respond better to environmental concerns. However, because it may lack economic viability and conflict with local culture and traditions, government policies may be needed to encourage more farmers to adopt it.
Agricultural rewilding offers new prospects for livestock systems with herbivores. We identified key research questions about its relation to agroecology and rewilding, conditions necessary to implement it, its potential for plant production and its value for farmers. In addition, the forms it can take remain to be explored, and the potential influence of these forms on biodiversity, ecosystem services and environmental impacts needs to be characterised. Exploring the forms that agricultural rewilding may take requires close collaboration among ecologists, animal scientists, agronomists, and social scientists.
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•Rewilding has emerged as a radically different approach to address the erosion of biodiversity•The potential of rewilding of agricultural systems to conserve and restore biodiversity should be explored•Agricultural rewilding is an emerging form of land use that we conceptually position between agroecology and rewilding•Agricultural rewilding may provide a multifunctional model for livestock systems to better respond to societal demands•Agricultural rewilding's relation to agroecology and rewilding, its forms and its value for farmers remain to be explored
Rewilding is gaining importance across Europe, as agricultural abandonment trajectories provide opportunities for large‐scale ecosystem restoration. However, its effective implementation is hitherto ...limited, in part due to a lack of monitoring of rewilding interventions and their interactions. Here, we provide a first assessment of rewilding progress across seven European sites. Using an iterative and participatory Delphi technique to standardize and analyze expert‐based knowledge of these sites, we 1) map rewilding interventions onto the three central components of the rewilding framework (i.e. stochastic disturbances, trophic complexity and dispersal), 2) assess rewilding progress by quantifying 19 indicators spanning human forcing and ecological integrity and 3) compile key success and threat factors for rewilding progress. We find that the most common interventions were keystone species reintroductions, whereas the least common targeted stochastic disturbances. We find that rewilding scores have improved in five sites, but declined in two, partly due to competing socio‐economic trends. Major threats for rewilding progress are related to land‐use intensification policies and persecution of keystone species. Major determinants of rewilding success are its societal appeal and socio‐economic benefits to local people. We provide an assessment of rewilding that is crucial in improving its restoration outcomes and informed implementation at scale across Europe in this decade of ecosystem restoration.
Restoration ecology has historically focused on reconstructing communities of highly visible taxa while less visible taxa, such as invertebrates and microbes, are ignored. This is problematic as ...invertebrates and microbes make up the vast bulk of biodiversity and drive many key ecosystem processes, yet they are rarely actively reintroduced following restoration, potentially limiting ecosystem function and biodiversity in these areas.
In this review, we discuss the current (limited) incorporation of invertebrates and microbes in restoration and rewilding projects. We argue that these groups should be actively rewilded during restoration to improve biodiversity, ecosystem function outcomes, and highlight how they can be used to greater effect in the future. For example, invertebrates and microbes are easily manipulated, meaning whole communities can potentially be rewilded through habitat transplants in a practice that we refer to as “whole‐of‐community” rewilding.
We provide a framework for whole‐of‐community rewilding and describe empirical case studies as practical applications of this under‐researched restoration tool that land managers can use to improve restoration outcomes.
We hope this new perspective on whole‐of‐community restoration will promote applied research into restoration that incorporates all biota, irrespective of size, while also enabling a better understanding of fundamental ecological theory, such as colonization and competition trade‐offs. This may be a necessary consideration as invertebrates that are important in providing ecosystem services are declining globally; targeting invertebrate communities during restoration may be crucial in stemming this decline.
Restoration and rewilding projects have historically overlooked the role played by invertebrates and microbes in restoring ecosystems. Here, we review the current state of microbial and invertebrate rewilding projects and provide recommendations on how projects can move forward in the future.
Abstract
In this paper, I suggest a new way of looking at the aesthetically motivated invitation of the putative wild into the inner sanctum of human artifice, the domestic sphere. I use the urban ...historical geography of Russia as my example. Rather than interpreting such interventions as simply the transplantation of the wild in time and space, the biological recovery of an often imaginary rural past, I argue that the paradoxes of what I call “domestic rewilding” deserve particular attention, as they reveal the aesthetic and political preoccupations motivating such projects. I put a special stress on the gendered cultural politics of canary‐keeping in fin‐de‐siècle St Petersburg, which saw a craze for canaries in the homes of all classes. In many cases, it was women who bought, trained, and traded these birds in order to beautify – via an ecological imaginary– the cultural spaces that had been created with the objective of keeping the non‐urban wild at bay. By installing these acoustic artefacts in the heart of the home, these women obtained a covert licence to go out on a figurative limb. The human/non‐human symbiosis of canary domestication provided a cover for women's incursions into traditionally male public formats of organised societies and scientific publications. The paradoxes of domestic rewilding thus subversively re‐constituted the gendered spaces of St Petersburg's urban modernity.
Grazing of both domestic and wild large herbivores can contribute to multiple ecosystem services. However, grazing systems strongly differ in the intensity of management and outcomes, and we define ...sustainable grazing as grazing which benefits multiple environmental ecosystem services. Previous studies have found that, in general, grazing systems with relatively low densities of animals, and with minimal and only targeted applications of deworming and other medicinal treatments, are most sustainable. However, for people engaged in such grazing management, a key question is what are their challenges and motivation.
We conducted interviews with 74 land-users, who are engaged in sustainable grazing management, in eight case-study areas in Europe. Employing the capability, opportunity and motivation-behaviour model (COM-B), we identified key motivation factors driving sustainable grazing management and the challenges which these land-users face. We found that capability and opportunity linked to land abandonment and rural exodus impact upon land-users’ management, especially in parts of South and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, challenges linked to the environment were particularly important in remote areas. In addition, we found economic aspects to be important in driving land-users’ behaviour, especially fiscal measures of the Common Agricultural Policy. Moreover, our results indicate that engagement in sustainable grazing management is often intrinsically motivated by the interest in nature conservation, intergenerational continuity and cohesion in the rural community.
Based on these results, using the Behaviour Change Wheel, we identify key interventions that could facilitate and encourage the capabilities and opportunities to conduct sustainable grazing management. These include incentivising extensification using subsidies, developing direct market possibilities and removing administrative hurdles for practises related to very extensive and semi-wild grazing.
•Land users performing sustainable grazing management in Europe face multiple challenges.•Social and physical opportunity are important driver of land users’ management.•Rural depopulation and land abandonment represent challenges for land users performing extensive management.•Rewilding with large herbivores faces different challenges, such as rules and regulations on large herbivores management.
Urbanisation is increasing; an estimated 68% of the world's population is expected to live in an urban conurbation by 2050. In 2019, London had 9 million inhabitants. Greater London covers an area of ...1,569 km, 14% of which is vegetated private garden space, a percentage that is declining, negatively impacting biodiversity. Small adaptations to London's private gardens can turn them into a habitat for wildlife. This study protocol provides detail of research to understand and influence urban rewilding behaviour with a focus on adaptations to private gardens in London. The research follows three phases comprising (1) a scoping review of the existing literature on intent-orientated pro-environmental behaviours with a focus on urban rewilding, coded using the COM-B model of behaviour, (2) sequential mixed methods research including interviews and a quantitative survey to understand the capability, opportunity and motivational factors influencing urban rewilding behaviour, culminating in (3) development of an intervention strategy to promote urban rewilding behaviour using the Behaviour Change Wheel framework. Combining the disciplines of design, environmental and behavioural sciences, this research will provide new insights for influencing the behaviour or urban rewilding.
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