steve carver
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School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Rewilding
Steve CarverDirector, Wildland Research Institute
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Outline:
•Nature and society
•Reconnecting people and nature
•(re)wilding
•Landscapes of resilience
•Reintroductions
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
“In wildness is the preservation of the world”Henry Thoreau (1862)
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
http://blogs.uww.edu/introtolatinamerica/2011/10/03/deforestation-in-latin-america/
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
http://www.taos-telecommunity.org/epow/EPOW-Archive/archive_2010/EPOW-100125.htm
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
http://www.kristin-reinig.de/blickdichtes/wordpress/en/photo-shoot/opencast-shoot/
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
http://biodilloversity.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/overfishing-101/
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Nature and society
First Nature
Second Nature
Third nature"We sow corn, we plant trees, we
fertilize the soil by irrigation, we dam the rivers and direct them where we want. In short, by means of our hands we try to
create as it were a second nature within the natural world.“
Cicero 45BC
…gardens make a “third nature, which I would not know how to name.”
Bonfadio (1541)
Frontispiece to l'Abbé de Vallemont's Curiositez de la nature et de l'art (1705)
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
After: Carver (2012) (Re)creating Wilderness: Rewilding and habitat restoration. In Howard, Thompson & Waterton (eds) The Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
“The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to keep all the parts.”
Aldo Leopold (1949)
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Tier 1 (strongest protection for wildlife): Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas, Ramsar sites, national and local nature reserves, etcTier 2: local wildlife sites and ancient woodlandTier 3 (weakest protection for wildlife): national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume26/conservation/conservation-2.html
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Re-wilding
• Emerging wild land policy in the UK
• background of historical, environmental, social, political and economic drivers
• Benchmark projects
• The Carrifran Wildwood Project
• Wild Ennerdale
• Wicken Fen
• Multiple benefits and environmental resilience
http://www.wildland-network.org/projects/wn_rewild_database.htm
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Copyright: SteveMG
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Strawberry
SycamoreValerianVioletWater avens
Welsh poppy
Willows x 3
Wood anemone
Wood cranesbill
Wood sage
Wood sorrel
YarrowYew
Angelica
Ash
Baneberry
Bilberry
Birch
Bird cherry
Birds eye primrose
Birds foot trefoil
Bitter vetch
Blackthorn
Bloody cranesbill
Bluebell
Bracken
Brittle bladder fern
Bugle
Butterwort
Cinquefoil
Cowberry
Creeping corydalis
Daffodil
Devil’s bit scabious
Dog rose
Dog’s mercury
Early pruple orchid
Elder
Field scabious
Figwort
Globe flower
Greater burnet
Green spleenwort
Guelder rose
Hard head
Hawthorn
Hazel
Heart’s tongue fern
Heather
Honeysuckle
Ivy
Juniper
Lesser meadow rue
Lily of the valley
Limestone oak fern
Meadow sweet
Melancholy thistle
Milkwort
Orpine
Primrose
Raspberry
Red currant
Rigid buckler fern
Rock rose
Rowan
Solomon’s seal
St John’s wort
Stone bramble
AshBaneberryBlackthornDog’s mercuryFigwortFragrant orchidGooseberryHawthornHazelHeart’s tongue fernIvyLimestone oak fernRaspberryRigid buckler fernRowanSycamoreThalictrumVioletWelsh poppyWood anemoneWood sageWood sorrel
Biodiversity:
Southerscales
versus
Scar Close
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTThe culprit….?
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Work by Claire MacAlister-Hall, BSc 2011-12
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
• Multiple viewpoints as to what is ‘wild’ or ‘natural’
• History of attrition of wild spaces• from prehistory to present
• recent revival in interest in ‘wild nature’
• Emerging policy• Scotland (SNH, NTS, JMT)
• England (Natural England, Wildlife Trusts)
• Wales (Coed Eryri, CCW)
• Opportunities for (re)wilding• economic climate
• policy climate
• public interest
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Two basic approaches:
• "letting go“• if a landscape is left unmanaged for a long enough
period, nature will take over and produce its own entirely natural landscape
• may not necessarily be the same landscape that existed before human settlement, but it will be natural
• "wild by design“• we may need to actively 'design' wild landscapes by
assisting the regeneration of native species to recreate a more natural looking landscape
• limited economic activity in the form of low intensity grazing and recreation is still possible and indeed desirable
After Council for National Parks (1998) Wild by Design
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
• Developing new wild lands where opportunities arise
• Edwards Review (1991)
• CNP “Wild By Design” (1998)
• Natural England’s “Vital Uplands” (2009)
• Lawton Report (2010) and DEFRA White Paper (2011)
• Aspects of re-wilding
• promotion of wilderness qualities
• enhancing and recreating semi-natural habitats
• promotion of ecological process in near-natural areas
• securing ecosystem services
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Edwards Review (1991)
“a number of experimental schemes on a limited scale should be set up in National Parks where farming is withdrawn entirely and the natural succession of vegetation is allowed to take its course” (Recommendation 6.3, Edwards, 1991)
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
After Council for National Parks (1998) Wild by Design
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Environmental resilience
• How does (re)wilding fit with this approach/view?
• Drivers for change
• social, environmental, economic, political
• Factors influencing environmental degradation and landscape response
• robust nature vs delicate balance
• landscape and public perceptions
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Environmental drivers
• Climate change and ecological response
• shifting patterns of migration and range
• N-S movements and altitudinal shifts
• different responses by different species
• Changing geographies of nature
• Humanistic barriers to adaptability
• lack of space/continuity between wild areas
• pollution (critical loads) and environmental stress
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Policy drivers
• CAP reform and changes in agricultural subsidies
• over-production/over-grazing
• environmental stewardship
• agri-environment schemes (fitting in)
• EU Directives
• Habitats Directive and Natura 2000
• Water Framework Directive
• Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs)
• Management for “Favourable status”
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Economic drivers
• CAP reform and the single farm payment
• agricultural ‘disasters’
• FMD
• BSE
• falling prices and the power of the big supermarkets
• increasing proportion of rural economy based on tourism
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Social drivers
• rise in outdoor recreation and leisure time
• greater mobility and disposable income
• rural migration:
• in migration of retirees and commuters
• out migration of farm workers, etc.
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Re-introductions of native species
• Nature management in UK?
• maintaining habitats and species
• remnants of former farming/forestry systems
• management using past practice
• i.e. “nature gardening”
• Alternative systems?
• holistic and ecosystems-based approaches
• less human intervention... i.e. “letting go”
• emphasis on role of large herbivores and predators?
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Herbivores we have lost…
Back! Back!
Extinct!Three
One herd
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
• Management with introduced grazers?
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
What about the carnivores?
The BIG three
European brown bearEurasian lynx
Grey wolf
School of GeographyFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
The next steps?• “Wild by Design” highlights the challenge…
“the commitment to leave minimal intervention areas on a much larger scale (landscapes of thousands of hectares) and over much longer periods (hundreds of years)” (CNP, 1998)
• integrating re-wilding with farming...
“Wilderness and Plenty” Fraser Darling
• packaging and marketing
• selling idea to the public and politicians… and more importantly (perhaps) local land owners and farmers
• developing a workable and realistic strategy
• Education!
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