Boundaries of the wolf and the wild: a conceptual examination of the relationship between rewilding and animal reintroduction
Corresponding Author
Koen Arts
Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Gaia, Building Number 101, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Centro de Pesquisa do Pantanal, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, 78.068-360 Brazil
Address correspondence to K. Arts, email [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorAnke Fischer
Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Group, The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH U.K.
Search for more papers by this authorRené van der Wal
School of Biological Sciences, Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability (ACES), University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UU U.K.
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Koen Arts
Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Gaia, Building Number 101, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Centro de Pesquisa do Pantanal, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, 78.068-360 Brazil
Address correspondence to K. Arts, email [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorAnke Fischer
Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Group, The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH U.K.
Search for more papers by this authorRené van der Wal
School of Biological Sciences, Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability (ACES), University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UU U.K.
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Animal reintroduction and rewilding are two widely appealing and frequently connected forms of ecological restoration. However, the critical assumption that animal reintroduction automatically helps to restore formerly wild places is under-theorized. To fill this void, we identified three common rewilding elements from the literature—ecological functioning, wilderness experience, and natural autonomy—and screened these against a hypothetical wolf reintroduction to Scotland. Each of the rewilding elements was likely to be positively impacted by a wolf reintroduction. Yet, there is a key conceptual difficulty in that the different rewilding elements do not necessarily enforce each other, and at times may even collide. Thus, a reintroduced species like the wolf may obfuscate the clear-cut, purified nature category to which rewilding often aspires. As a way forward, we suggest that there is merit in actively engaging with the tensions created by rewilding and reintroductions. A reconceptualisation of the nature–culture spectrum as consisting of multiple layers (e.g. ecological functioning, wilderness experience, and natural autonomy) may help to interpret ecological restoration as a tentative, deliberative, and gradual enterprise. This bears some resemblance to the notion of approaching a landscape like a ‘palimpsest’ (i.e. a text built up of different layers written on top of each other), which may support the reconciliation of conflicting views without necessarily making those disappear. When viewed as feeding into a multilayered nature–culture spectrum, animal reintroduction and rewilding can be promoted as inspiring and essentially non-controlling forms of ecological restoration and human interaction with nature.
Supporting Information
Filename | Description |
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rec12309-sup-0002-AppendixS1.docxWord 2007 document , 94 KB | Figure S1. Three common elements of rewilding (in bold) and their conceptual features as identified in the literature. Table S1. Conceptual features of rewilding and references. Box S1. Description of three common elements of rewilding. Box S2. Approach to literature review. Box S3. Literature cited in supporting information. |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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Citing Literature
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