Is Rewilding a Good Idea? Why We Need to Rethink Our Approach to Ecosystem Regeneration

Rewilding is a popular idea nowadays. Given the poor performance of humans in managing ecosystems, the temptation to leave the wheel to Gaia is strong. But it is also true that in the long history of the Earth, Gaia has not always been firmly in control. Maybe she was drunk, maybe she was stoned, but Earth without humans has been "wild" in the sense that it went through all sorts of oscillations -- sometimes true catastrophes. Just think of the alternance of ice ages/interglacials of the past 2-3 million years. So, what do we mean with "rewilding"? Returning Eurasia to the "Mammoth Steppe" of the ice ages? Or to the lush forests of the Eocene? Or what, exactly? Here, Helga Ingeborg Vierich criticizes the concept of rewilding and proposes better ideas to manage the ecosystem. In general, the correct approach should not be "rewilding" but "regeneration"

By Helga Ingeborg Vierich -- From "The Proud Holobionts" Forum

Is the term we are looking for here really "re-wilding”? I ask this because the term “wild” implies that it is not “tame” - “wild” is usually present as the opposite of “domesticated”.

The term further prevents an understanding of reality. What is that reality? Well, let us start with this: the human species IS part of the ecosystem of this planet.

Homo sapiens and earlier ancestral forms have been keystone species for at least a million years. For 99.99% of our evolutionary history, we humans were keystone ecological engineers. Like beavers and otters and wolves and whales and elephants, we were increasing and stabilizing the diversity of life in every ecosystem we inhabited.

This positive effect on ecosystems was not, however, due to anything genetic or innate in human behaviour, it was due to learned and shared patterns: in other words, it was “cultural”.

Starting in a few places on the planet, a cultural change to more ecologically destructive economies changed all that. At first it only effected a tiny proportion of humanity and of the ecology of the planet, but then it grew and coalesced into larger and larger cultures containing higher and higher proportions of the human beings, and more and more surface areas around the globe.

Today we call it our “civilization” as if it was a positive and progressive change in our relationship with the planet and each other.

It has been nothing of the kind. Each state level society with civil - urban - population concentrations, has been requiring far too much deforestation and other resource extraction. The reality is that there is nothing positive about the progressive destruction of ecosystems in support of greater and greater urbanization and an extremely expensive (though tiny) “upper” class of humans.

This has not just disrupted the positive trophic flows that characterized the human past, after the “industrial revolution” began, it has reversed them. Now, the global industrial economy is the main driver of species extinction, environmental pollution with toxins and plastics, and climate change.

Just look at this chart below...

So our job now is NOT to “leave nature alone” but to relearn our species' responsibility within the planetary ecosystem, and RENEW that positive effect on diversity and stability.

Humans will not be able to do this if they continue to be guided by corporate and political elites whose main goal is to enrich themselves and stay “in power” over inegalitarian cultures competing for control of the planet’s diminishing resources of minerals, fossil carbon, water, and “arable soil”. I am very afraid that what this means is incomprehensible to most people in this present industrial and financially-driven culture.

1: Stop industrial agriculture. The planet cannot afford it. 

2, Restore predators and critical keystone species to every available habitat, and stop killing them for “fun” or “profit”. Beavers, wolves, lions, bison, bears, caribou, otters, and all the other component species of a diverse and healthy ecosystem will restore positive trophic flows. That includes diversity of plants, and is vital: 

3. Stop the destruction of forested ecosystems: the lumber and paper industries must be radically scaled back. Stop this silly substitution of “commercially valuable” tree plantations and restore actual forest ecosystems. Above all, immediately stop the cutting down of existing forest ecosystems. Recycle paper, plastic, all metals, and so on. 

4. All industrial scale “commercial” fishing, as well as “fish farming” must be stopped. 

5. TAX the rich and the corporations - and stop all investment of money (gambling) in any industry.

6. Begin taking the necessary steps to close down the petroleum-powered automobile industry: no more ”new models” every year. Restore and enlarge electrically powered public transit - trains and street cars and buses... encourage bicycles by increasing bike lanes in all towns and cities.