Rewilding success stories

Rewilding, a social and ecological movement promoting more wilderness, has seen people across the world help restore, protect, heal and stabilize nature. Rewilding efforts have focused on repairing broken ecological systems and enhancing species survival by giving nature space to restore and manage itself. Ecologists in Europe have demanded that 20% of degenerated areas be renaturalized by 2030.

At the start of the 20th century, European bison were nearly extinct. But thanks to reintroduction efforts and rewilding initiatives across Europe, the free-roaming European bison population has almost tripled. Not only are they enhancing local biodiversity, but they're also playing an increasingly important role in driving local socioeconomic development.

The Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria and Greece are one of Europe's last biodiversity hot spots and a vital breeding area for griffon, Egyptian and black vultures. Over the last five years, a rewilding initiative has helped stabilize and grow these populations by boosting the availability of natural prey and reducing mortality from poaching, poisoning and collision with power lines.

Beavers were driven to extinction in England and Wales four centuries ago. But recently, the UK government reintroduced a family of beavers into its Forest of Dean to stop a village from flooding. Beavers are not only known to help improve the soil: Their dams are also a natural buffer to floods, as they store huge quantities of water and slow peak flows during flood events.

Yellowstone National Park in the US once suffered from rampant elk overpopulation, stripping the area of willow, aspen and cottonwood trees. But since America's gray wolf was reintroduced to the park, elk numbers have been kept in check, songbirds and beavers have returned and the structure of rivers has changed. Elks, now faced with a predator again, can no longer casually dawdle on riverbanks.

When insects travel long distances, they often struggle to find wildlife-rich habitats to feed on along the way as a result of modern farming methods. Last year, the charity Buglife mapped a series of interconnected insect pathways, also known as B-Lines, in the UK. Along these routes, conservationists have provided a network of feeding opportunities for bees, butterflies and other wildlife.

Red-and-green macaws were extinct in Argentina until a rewilding foundation reintroduced the birds to Ibera National Park in 2015. Since then, they have played a vital role in dispersing seeds and have created a valuable ecotourism attraction. The birds have even started to breed. Last year, the country’s first wild-born chicks in 150 years hatched.

Rewilding doesn't come without its controversies. The introduction of wild species can have huge unintended consequences, such as the propagation of invasive species or disease transmission. Some experts also fear rewilding can become an economic problem when decisions have to be made as to which area of land should be rewilded, given competing land uses like infrastructure and agriculture.

A key challenge of rewilding is deciding where to do it. Experts say it's vital to take the role of landscape into account, from the topography and river systems to the soil and underlying geology. This will determine where vegetation grows, herbivores graze, animals seek shelter and predators hunt. They found that more varied landscapes show greater conservation potential.