Peene river and flooded lands near Anklamer Stadtbruch, Germany. (Credit: Solvin Zankl/Rewilding Europe) The human imprint on Earth is undeniable. Everywhere you look, you can find traces of our species’ short time on our roughly 4.5 billion-year-old planet. Often, those stamps are visible, like roads cutting through a forest or a patchwork of farmland covering what was once prairie. These marks can hinder the natural biodiversity of ecosystems, suffocating plant and animal species that once had a happy niche. One way to undo some of this damage is to follow a conservation practice called rewilding, which some experts have criticized, often because of the concept’s ever-evolving nature. Now, the authors of a paper out in the journal Science have outlined what they say is a framework for rewilding that addresses those concern. It also identifies key ecosystem factors for experts to home in on.
The definition of rewilding has shifted ...
