Rewilding

Description

Rewilding is the strategic process of restoring ecosystems by reintroducing native species, removing human-made barriers, and allowing natural processes to resume with minimal human intervention. Its core intent is to remedy biodiversity loss, degraded habitats, and disrupted ecological functions. By enabling self-sustaining environments, rewilding addresses problems such as species extinction, soil erosion, and climate instability, ultimately fostering resilient landscapes and supporting long-term ecological health.

Context

Across the world, urban dwellers have been alienated from the wildlands that surround them. A little more than two centuries ago, only two percent of the Earth’s population lived in cities. We are fast approaching a time when most do. Ironically, we are increasingly dependent for our sanity on the non-indigenous animals we call our pets and perhaps a backyard garden of exotic vegetation, some raised vegetable beds or a few potted, exogenous plants.

Implementation

In Britain, George Monbiot and others have urged that top predators be re-introduced to the countryside.

In the U.S., there have long been successful moves to reintroduce wolves to wilderness areas. Yellowstone’s wolves have had a startlingly benign impact by rebalancing the park’s ecosystem.

Claim

It may be time to consider the measured re-introduction of our own species into the wild in a last ditch effort to re-discover the circumstances of sustainable co-habitation with non-human life-forms.