Roots, relevance, aims and values
41
other functionalist approaches to conservation,
wherein priority is given to managing and restoring
ecological processes. However, it is functionalism with
strong compositionalist tendencies; inspiration for
rewilding projects is frequently taken from the palaeoecological literature, and evolutionary and ecological
processes are typically restored through the re -
establishment of ancient assemblages (or their nearest
functional equivalent if the original inhabitants are
extinct).
For example, one of the architects of Dutch rewilding (described in Chapter 2 , Section 2.5.2 ), Frans Vera,
drew heavily on the palaeoecological record to argue
that the primeval landscape of lowland Europe was
much more open than previously thought, primarily
due to the actions of large herbivores that are now
extinct or greatly reduced in abundance (Vera, 2000 ).
The Dutch government allowed Vera and his colleagues
to produce a public demonstration of this hypothesis
at the Oostvaardersplassen reserve, a 5,600 ha polder
50 km from Amsterdam, which was created in 1974 –
78. This was land that had been reclaimed, but not
cultivated, and where elder and willow scrub had
rapidly colonized (Sutherland, 2002 ).
They introduced a dynamic grazing management
that involved the introduction of red, fallow and roe
deer and Heck cattle and Konic ponies as substitutes
for the extinct Auroch and Tarpan (Sutherland, 2002 ;
Jepson & Ladle, 2010 ). The experiment has been a
remarkable success, and by 2005 the cattle and horses
were exhibiting ‘ natural ’ herd social structures and
had mostly synchronized breeding. The habitat mosaic
of pasture, woodland and wetland created by high herbivore densities has produced some novel and often
unexpected conservation outcomes. The most high
profi le of these are the 60,000 greylag geese ( Anser
anser ) that appear on the site each autumn (Sutherland,
2002 ) and the fi rst ever breeding in Holland of white -
tailed eagle ( Haliaeetus albicilla ) in 2006 (Jepson &
Ladle, 2010 ).
Rewilding with large herbivores may also be an
effective strategy for mitigating the negative ecological
effects of rapid environmental change. Zimov (2005)
has suggested that large herbivores may act as ecological buffers between the changing climate and the constituent ecosystems that they help create. Introducing
wild - acting herbivores, therefore, has the potential to
create a more fl exible form of management – one that
is more responsive to climate change than the typically
crude human management interventions. However,
Changes in land use and ‘ natural ’ disturbance
events such as hurricanes, fl oods, volcanic eruptions,
severe fi res or other Large Infrequent Disturbances
(LIDs), can interact with or even override the ecological
consequences of prevailing climatic trends (Turner &
Dale, 1998 ).
A good example of how palaeoecology and archaeology have elucidated feedbacks between disturbance,
landscape patterns and human behaviour is from
Garua and Numundo Islands, Papua New Guinea,
where the wide - scale effects of catastrophic volcanic
events were overlain by a patchwork of different vegetation responses and human activity at fi ner spatial
scales. Boyd et al . (2005) used a combination of
archaeology and phytolith (silica bodies that occur in
plants) analysis to compare vegetation responses to
tephra deposition at local, sub - regional and regional
scales. They discovered that the effects of major eruptions (c. 5900, 3600, 1700 and 1400 cal yr BP) varied
spatially, partly because of topographic control on
deposition patterns of tephra, and this pattern was
overlain in turn by human partitioning of the landscape. When tephra accumulation continued after the
initial volcanic eruption, landscapes were abandoned
by people and the impacts on the vegetation were
severe. In contrast, after a low - impact eruption with
little tephra deposition, the forest persisted and human
occupation continued.
The story was somewhat different on the mainland,
where the spatially patchy recovery of the coastal
lowland refl ected the modifi cation of the landscapes by
humans prior to eruptions (Boyd et al ., 2005 ). For
example, habitats dominated by grasses and other
pioneer species (e.g. gardens and forest clearings)
recovered more slowly and took much longer to be
recolonized by the local population. This example
illustrates how a combination of data derived from
long - term ecology and strong conceptual structures
can generate real insights into the feedbacks and interactions between human activity and landscape pattern,
process and scale.
3.5.3 Rewilding
Rewilding has been defi ned as ‘ action at the landscape
level with a goal of reducing human control and
allowing ecological and evolutionary processes to
reassert themselves ’ (Klyza, 2001 , p. 285). In this
context, rewilding projects can be grouped in with
41
other functionalist approaches to conservation,
wherein priority is given to managing and restoring
ecological processes. However, it is functionalism with
strong compositionalist tendencies; inspiration for
rewilding projects is frequently taken from the palaeoecological literature, and evolutionary and ecological
processes are typically restored through the re -
establishment of ancient assemblages (or their nearest
functional equivalent if the original inhabitants are
extinct).
For example, one of the architects of Dutch rewilding (described in Chapter 2 , Section 2.5.2 ), Frans Vera,
drew heavily on the palaeoecological record to argue
that the primeval landscape of lowland Europe was
much more open than previously thought, primarily
due to the actions of large herbivores that are now
extinct or greatly reduced in abundance (Vera, 2000 ).
The Dutch government allowed Vera and his colleagues
to produce a public demonstration of this hypothesis
at the Oostvaardersplassen reserve, a 5,600 ha polder
50 km from Amsterdam, which was created in 1974 –
78. This was land that had been reclaimed, but not
cultivated, and where elder and willow scrub had
rapidly colonized (Sutherland, 2002 ).
They introduced a dynamic grazing management
that involved the introduction of red, fallow and roe
deer and Heck cattle and Konic ponies as substitutes
for the extinct Auroch and Tarpan (Sutherland, 2002 ;
Jepson & Ladle, 2010 ). The experiment has been a
remarkable success, and by 2005 the cattle and horses
were exhibiting ‘ natural ’ herd social structures and
had mostly synchronized breeding. The habitat mosaic
of pasture, woodland and wetland created by high herbivore densities has produced some novel and often
unexpected conservation outcomes. The most high
profi le of these are the 60,000 greylag geese ( Anser
anser ) that appear on the site each autumn (Sutherland,
2002 ) and the fi rst ever breeding in Holland of white -
tailed eagle ( Haliaeetus albicilla ) in 2006 (Jepson &
Ladle, 2010 ).
Rewilding with large herbivores may also be an
effective strategy for mitigating the negative ecological
effects of rapid environmental change. Zimov (2005)
has suggested that large herbivores may act as ecological buffers between the changing climate and the constituent ecosystems that they help create. Introducing
wild - acting herbivores, therefore, has the potential to
create a more fl exible form of management – one that
is more responsive to climate change than the typically
crude human management interventions. However,
Changes in land use and ‘ natural ’ disturbance
events such as hurricanes, fl oods, volcanic eruptions,
severe fi res or other Large Infrequent Disturbances
(LIDs), can interact with or even override the ecological
consequences of prevailing climatic trends (Turner &
Dale, 1998 ).
A good example of how palaeoecology and archaeology have elucidated feedbacks between disturbance,
landscape patterns and human behaviour is from
Garua and Numundo Islands, Papua New Guinea,
where the wide - scale effects of catastrophic volcanic
events were overlain by a patchwork of different vegetation responses and human activity at fi ner spatial
scales. Boyd et al . (2005) used a combination of
archaeology and phytolith (silica bodies that occur in
plants) analysis to compare vegetation responses to
tephra deposition at local, sub - regional and regional
scales. They discovered that the effects of major eruptions (c. 5900, 3600, 1700 and 1400 cal yr BP) varied
spatially, partly because of topographic control on
deposition patterns of tephra, and this pattern was
overlain in turn by human partitioning of the landscape. When tephra accumulation continued after the
initial volcanic eruption, landscapes were abandoned
by people and the impacts on the vegetation were
severe. In contrast, after a low - impact eruption with
little tephra deposition, the forest persisted and human
occupation continued.
The story was somewhat different on the mainland,
where the spatially patchy recovery of the coastal
lowland refl ected the modifi cation of the landscapes by
humans prior to eruptions (Boyd et al ., 2005 ). For
example, habitats dominated by grasses and other
pioneer species (e.g. gardens and forest clearings)
recovered more slowly and took much longer to be
recolonized by the local population. This example
illustrates how a combination of data derived from
long - term ecology and strong conceptual structures
can generate real insights into the feedbacks and interactions between human activity and landscape pattern,
process and scale.
3.5.3 Rewilding
Rewilding has been defi ned as ‘ action at the landscape
level with a goal of reducing human control and
allowing ecological and evolutionary processes to
reassert themselves ’ (Klyza, 2001 , p. 285). In this
context, rewilding projects can be grouped in with