A few months ago I wrote a
series of blogs on re-wilding – the idea that we can re-naturalise parts of the
British countryside, reinstating natural processes as an alternative to
management by people. This was largely
stimulated by George Monbiot’s excellent book “Feral”.
The idea, however, is not new
and discussions about nature versus nurture have been going on in ecology for
decades. It could, however, be an idea
finding its time.
In 1995 Bill Jenman and I wrote an article called “A Natural Method of Conserving Biodiversity in Britain”. This contained many of the points that are
being made today. The Sussex Wildlife
Trust has reprinted it with the kind permission of British Wildlife (Volume 7,
Number 2, December 1995).
Re-reading it today I find
that many of the ideas being discussed today were already well-advanced 20
years ago. Some of the terminology might
have changed (we didn't use the term “re-wilding”) and conservation management,
rather than the promotion of natural processes, was perhaps more prevalent then
than it is now. Also some emphasis might
have changed slightly. We recognised the
importance of top predators but today we would probably give even more
prominence to the role that predators have in influencing grazing animals and
through this the way that vegetation develops (the so-called “trophic
cascade”).
The article was, perhaps, too
optimistic in promoting new wildernesses in Britain as we have not seen large
areas reverting to nature. However,
progress has been made with some major areas of re-naturalisation being
delivered by private landowners as well as charities (see my last article in
“Natural World”).
I also remain optimistic that
a greater appreciation of natural processes has worked into the thinking on
conservation management throughout nature conservation. 20 years ago management planning started from
the perspective of managing nature, today we work from the perspective of how
nature works before implementing management regimes. Our whole Living Landscape theme is based on
the idea that by working on a landscape scale we have to think about the processes
that deliver a rich and varied wildlife – natural processes as well as human
processes like agriculture and forestry.
Take a look at this British
Wildlife article today. I don’t think we
were either mindless dreamers or way ahead of our time. It promoted many of the things that are being
put forward today under the title of Rewidling Britain - perhaps the difference
now is that there is a strong momentum building behind re-wilding, with more people involved and more people pushing for it. Hopefully it really is an idea finding its time.
1 comment:
I hope so too...
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