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Guiding principles for rewilding |
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| Authors: | Steve Carver Ian Convery Sally Hawkins Rene Beyers Adam Eagle Zoltan Kun Erwin Van Maanen Yue Cao Mark Fisher Stephen R Edwards Cara Nelson George D Gann Steve Shurter Karina Aguilar Angela Andrade William J Ripple John Davis Anthony Sinclair Marc Bekoff Reed Noss Dave Foreman Hanna Pettersson Meredith Root-Bernstein Jens-Christian Svenning Peter Taylor Sophie Wynne-Jones Alan Watson Featherstone Camilla Fløjgaard Mark Stanley-Price Laetitia M Navarro Toby Aykroyd Alison Parfitt Michael Soulé |
| Institution: | 1. School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK;2. National School of Forestry, University of Cumbria, UK;3. Institute of Science, Natural Resources and Outdoor Studies, University of Cumbria, UK;4. Biodiversity Research Centre, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada;5. The Lifescape Project, London, UK;6. Wild Europe, Gy?r, Hungary;7. Rewilding Foundation, Diepenveen, The Netherlands;8. Institute for National Parks, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China;9. Wildland Research Institute, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK;10. Commission for Ecosystem Management, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland;11. W.A. Franke College of Forestry & Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, USA;12. The Institute for Regional Conservation, Delray Beach, Florida, USA
Society for Ecological Restoration, Washington, D.C., USA;13. White Oak Conservation, Jacksonville, Florida, USA;14. Agencia Metropolitana de Bosques Urbanos del AMG, Guadalajara, Mexico;15. Commission for Ecosystem Management, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland Conservation International Colombia, Bogota, Colombia;16. Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA;17. The Rewilding Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA;18. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA;19. Florida Institute for Conservation Science, Melrose, Florida, USA;20. Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK;21. UMR CESCO, CNRS, Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France;22. Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Section for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark;23. School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, UK;24. Freelance Ecologist, Findhorn, UK;25. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark;26. WildCRU, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK;27. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, Germany;28. Wild Europe, Brussels, Belgium;29. Wildland Research Institute, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK Deceased.;30. Society for Conservation Biology, Washington, D.C., USA Deceased. |
| Abstract: | There has been much recent interest in the concept of rewilding as a tool for nature conservation, but also confusion over the idea, which has limited its utility. We developed a unifying definition and 10 guiding principles for rewilding through a survey of 59 rewilding experts, a summary of key organizations’ rewilding visions, and workshops involving over 100 participants from around the world. The guiding principles convey that rewilding exits on a continuum of scale, connectivity, and level of human influence and aims to restore ecosystem structure and functions to achieve a self-sustaining autonomous nature. These principles clarify the concept of rewilding and improve its effectiveness as a tool to achieve global conservation targets, including those of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Finally, we suggest differences in rewilding perspectives lie largely in the extent to which it is seen as achievable and in specific interventions. An understanding of the context of rewilding projects is the key to success, and careful site-specific interpretations will help achieve the aims of rewilding. |
| Keywords: | definition ecosystem management goals guiding principles rewilding |