What is rewilding?
“The planned reintroduction of a plant or animal species and especially a keystone species or apex predator (such as the gray wolf or lynx) into a habitat from which it has disappeared (as from hunting or habitat destruction) in an effort to increase biodiversity and restore the health of an ecosystem.” (Merriam-Webster)
In most places, 90% of the original ecosystems – wild places – have been lost. We are undergoing a sixth mass extinction of biological diversity. The concept of rewilding, especially in terms of local ecosystems, has become by necessity a worldwide movement that is gaining momentum.
I love the term, rewilding, as it implies that everything begins wild, including ourselves. The word wild, however, often has negative connotations. It suggests a chaotic, untamed, or uncivilized state. There’s a sense of something (or someone) being out of control, unruly, or deviating from the norm. For the positive aspect of wild, we can think of wilderness and there has certainly been a push to create or protect wilderness areas over the past 100 years. Henry David Thoreau said that “In wilderness is the preservation of the world.” Wild can also suggest passion, desire, emotions, and delight. There’s something wondrous about being wild and untamed. Think – dance like nobody’s watching.
In this post, I’m hoping you’ll get a vision of what rewilding could mean for you and your place. But first, George Monbiot explains how ecosystem rewilding works in this 15 minute TED talk, which includes the example of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park.
Rewilding Place
Monbiot goes into detailed examples of loss and rewilding in his book, Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life. Rewilding can mean different things to different people. The word was first introduced in 2011, and it meant releasing captive animals into the wild. This meaning expanded to include reintroducing plant and animal species which had previously been excised. For some, it means the restoration of entire ecosystems. More recently, it’s been used with regard to rewilding peoples and cultures.
For Monbiot, it’s not about restoration to a previous state, but letting a place alone enough to let it adapt on its own. This is different from the conservation movement, which seeks to freeze time, to keep something as it is. While it’s fine to protect what is, this doesn’t account for the fact that these are living, evolving systems. Rewilding reinstates relationships.
”Rewilding recognizes that nature consists of not just a collection of species, but also of their ever-shifting relationships with each other and the physical environment. It’s about resisting the urge to control nature and allowing it to find its own way. It’s about stepping back. The results will be different from the past.”
Monbiot concedes that this can’t and shouldn’t be done everywhere and especially on productive farmland. The places that are rewilded are those where wildlife can thrive and where we can become reacquainted with the wild. In this interview, author JB Mackinnon says,
”Rewilding means bringing back wild qualities where they have been lost. That means it can happen at any scale, from your backyard to the wilderness. It can be cultural, too — weaving nature back into our daily lives.”
How can you contribute to rewilding where you are? First, by learning about rewilding projects in your area or country. How can you support them? Secondly, you can bring a little more wild into the place where you live by removing invasive species and planting native species; by creatimg habitat for bugs, birds, and other animals. Thirdly, by makimg decisions based on relationships not species.
Rewilding Self
Thoreau also said, “All good things are wild and free.”
How do we rewild ourself? Maybe it works similarly to rewilding nature, in terms of letting go and letting our relationships with nature and our own original wild nature restore themselves. When we rewild ourself, we bring back the sensual part of human experience. Try forest bathing. Listen to the birds. Befriend a tree. Maybe this is a good therapy for depression because rewilding our connection with nature makes us feel alive and kin to everything.
”The drive towards monoculture causes a dewilding, of both places and people. It strips the Earth of the diversity of life and natural structure to which human beings are drawn. It creates a dull world, a flat world, a world lacking in colour and variety, which enhances ecological boredom, narrows the scope of our lives, limits the range of our engagement with nature, pushes us toward a monoculture of the spirit.” ~ George Monbiot
We can also observe the way our mind works, noticing where we’re conditioned, noticing our biases, our fears, our worries, paying attention to what we truly desire. The simple act of noticing, I’ve found, is enough to bring about some transformation. Bill Plotkin wrote a book on this topic called Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche. He’s talking about restoring ourselves to our natural, wild state by cultivating wholeness; by reintegrating the parts of ourselves that we’ve lost to conditioning. As we grow, we tend to cover up our natural wildness to conform to societal expectations. We become habituated by circumstances and experiences; tamed and civilized out of our wild nature. We think our wild nature needs to be fixed or blocked.
“The key to reclaiming our original wholeness is not merely to suppress psychological symptoms, recover from addictions and trauma, manage stress, or refurbish dysfunctional relationships but rather to fully flesh out our multifaceted, wild psyches, committing ourselves to the largest story we’re capable of living, serving something bigger than ourselves. The goal of individuation is wholeness, not perfection.”
When we become more whole, we live in the world of relationships, not just with other people, but also with landscapes and seascapes, trees and forests, birds and animals, poetry and music. Plotkin says that our psychological health relies on the health of the world. Maybe we need to step back and let nature rewild and take care of us rather than the other way around.
Are you ready to rewild your place and yourself?
More on Rewilding
What does rewilding look like? Check out Rewilding Britain, Rewilding Europe.
What is human rewilding?
Read: The Once and Future World: Nature as it was, as it is, as it could be by J.B. Mackinnon