He will talk about his story: “hey aren’t you that rewilding guy?”
Then what is the larger role of rewilding
The role of science?
How do we scale rewilding?
In the 1990s he was working on eradicating invasive cats from islands in Mexico.
In 2000 he rain into Paul Martin about reintroducing elephants to the southwest USA.
Biodiversity conservation is generally doom and gloom - gets good media but does not make for good strategy
The wild lands project defined rewilding for restoring big wilderness areas based on the regulatory roles of large predators. Everything we know, or believe to be true, is based on an understanding of history.
Key early roles layer by Paul Martin and Dan Janzen
In 2000s, there was a meeting on Ted Turners's ranch in New Mexico. “Can we explore a defensible framework for rewilding?” Two appears called for the restoration of missing ecological functions and the evolutionary potential of lost megafauna using extant cospecifics and related taxa. Paper in Science and Nature.
Widespread public response. Extremely bimodal response, you either loved it or hated it.
Anti-responses: it is ivory tower elitist, imperialistic (stealing Africa’s wildlife), fear of large animals
Pro-responses: to is pro-active, positive, from the ranching community, love of large animals
Many ranchers would bring in elephants tomorrow if they could. They spend a fortune on bull dozers.
Reflections.
We should have included a philosopher
Restoration baselines are dangerous
Rewilding captivates the general public and the media
In conservation biology we are seeing a debate about what is conservation about, gardening vs preserving. We are seeing more disruptive, conservation-based approaches. Most conservation action is probably in the middle.
What role for science? We don’t need any more debate. We need much more data-driven papers, especially when more grassroots and rogue rewilding is happening. Example of Connir Barlow and rogue rewilding
Private funds and fiery souls are taking the lead in rewilding while scientists and policy makers are struggling to keep up.
Rewilding is now mainstream as an idea. How do we scale it up? We need buy-in from stakeholders and private landowners. Chris Sandom has started a business as a Rewilding consultancy., “wild business”. Leverage existing business models - ecotourism doesn’t always work.
Where is the innovation going to come from? Not from science but from design thinking. This is a process for problem-solving for wicked challenges. Interesting diagram of the process of design thinking.
“The greatest impediment to rewilding is an unwillingness to imagine it” - Michale Soule
Then what is the larger role of rewilding
The role of science?
How do we scale rewilding?
In the 1990s he was working on eradicating invasive cats from islands in Mexico.
In 2000 he rain into Paul Martin about reintroducing elephants to the southwest USA.
Biodiversity conservation is generally doom and gloom - gets good media but does not make for good strategy
The wild lands project defined rewilding for restoring big wilderness areas based on the regulatory roles of large predators. Everything we know, or believe to be true, is based on an understanding of history.
Key early roles layer by Paul Martin and Dan Janzen
In 2000s, there was a meeting on Ted Turners's ranch in New Mexico. “Can we explore a defensible framework for rewilding?” Two appears called for the restoration of missing ecological functions and the evolutionary potential of lost megafauna using extant cospecifics and related taxa. Paper in Science and Nature.
Widespread public response. Extremely bimodal response, you either loved it or hated it.
Anti-responses: it is ivory tower elitist, imperialistic (stealing Africa’s wildlife), fear of large animals
Pro-responses: to is pro-active, positive, from the ranching community, love of large animals
Many ranchers would bring in elephants tomorrow if they could. They spend a fortune on bull dozers.
Reflections.
We should have included a philosopher
Restoration baselines are dangerous
Rewilding captivates the general public and the media
In conservation biology we are seeing a debate about what is conservation about, gardening vs preserving. We are seeing more disruptive, conservation-based approaches. Most conservation action is probably in the middle.
What role for science? We don’t need any more debate. We need much more data-driven papers, especially when more grassroots and rogue rewilding is happening. Example of Connir Barlow and rogue rewilding
Private funds and fiery souls are taking the lead in rewilding while scientists and policy makers are struggling to keep up.
Rewilding is now mainstream as an idea. How do we scale it up? We need buy-in from stakeholders and private landowners. Chris Sandom has started a business as a Rewilding consultancy., “wild business”. Leverage existing business models - ecotourism doesn’t always work.
Where is the innovation going to come from? Not from science but from design thinking. This is a process for problem-solving for wicked challenges. Interesting diagram of the process of design thinking.
“The greatest impediment to rewilding is an unwillingness to imagine it” - Michale Soule