Conservation Remix: should we name fusions between Rewilding and trad Habitat Restoration?

While birding this morning at the RSPB #Otmoor reserve, a dedicated volunteer and ambassador for the reserve mentioned that he was conducting a lot of local talks under the title 'A Wetland Restored'.

This prompted an engaging conversation comparing the #habitat #restoration approach taken at Otmoor with that of the #rewilding approach.

My fellow birder described how they were restoring 'the moor' back to what it was before it was drained and converted to agriculture, and creating the habitats to support bitterns and breeding waders.

I described how rewilding was more forward-looking and didn’t have a fixed idea of the past or landscape that should be recreated. It was more about restoring the processes and letting nature lead.

However, rewilding also requires management, or what I prefer to call 'steering', namely the practice of humans mimicking the effects of missing ecosystem engineers to accelerate and guide ecosystem recovery.

Ours was really a conversation about the common ground between the habitat approach of 'classical' English reserve management and the newer ecosystem approach of rewilding.

In my mind, there are opportunities to blend the two approaches and create something new and vital.

Indeed this is already happening in the UK with projects integrating aspects of traditional habitat management, species reintroductions and ecosystem approach.

However, many projects adopting the label rewilding express a 'constrained' version of what I understand to be the rewilding approach to ecological restoration.

I never quite know what to think of this trend. When I’m feeling grumpy, I worry that others are jumping on the rewilding zeitgeist and just repackaging what they have always done, rather than supporting and amplifying the progressive vision of rewilding.

At other times, when I'm just enjoying being part of modern culture and society, I simply love what is happening in UK nature conservation.

In music, different genres crossover and blend, and musicians are constantly innovating to create new 'sounds'. For instance, yesterday my daughter went to a #reggaeton gig, which blends reggae, dancehall with Latin American musical influences. Musicians know their root 'genres' and coin new labels for hybrid and fusion genres.

I wonder whether conservation should take a lead from music and do the same. For instance, I refer to #Knepp as 'Farm Wilding' to distinguish it from the rewilding that originated in areas of continental Europe between 1985 and ~2005.

I'd love to hear the thoughts of others on this topic and any suggestions for other 'fusion genres' of conservation that may be emerging in Britain.

#biodiversity #naturepostive #decadeofecosystemrestoration