A recently released report from the UK’s Zoological Institute of Zoology has found that adopting urban rewilding as an environmental management strategy could be a solution to help slow down biodiversity loss, reduce the impacts of climate change, and improve human health and wellbeing.
Some of the practical and sustainable opportunities for urban rewilding include home gardens, cemeteries, council parks and gardens, urban waterways and wetlands, and railways.
Lead author Nathalie Pettorelli, Senior Scientist at the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology said that although urban rewilding was unlikely to help recover the world’s giraffe and lion populations, its benefits could improve human-wildlife coexistence through a recognition everyone has a role to play in helping to address the environmental crises we all face.
“Wildfires, floods, and heatwaves across the world have brought the climate crisis to the fore for many people this year. The interconnection of the climate crisis with the loss of nature is thankfully now widely recognised and rewilding as an approach is being increasingly embraced,” she said.
The report cites examples of rewilding projects in Singapore and Germany where they have had a positive effect, although professional advice and support are essential aspects to be included to avoid the accidental spread of invasive species, disease transmission risks, and increased human-wildlife conflicts.
“Large-scale rewilding of urban spaces, including the creation of native corridors and wild spaces around city infrastructure, is something that’s so far been relatively overlooked as part of the solution, but we believe it’s a high-impact solution to jointly address the climate and biodiversity loss crises in a low-cost, hands-off way,” Pettorelli said.
Co-author Andrew Terry, Director of Conservation and Policy at ZSL’s Institute of Zoology said rewilding was an approach to the recovery of dynamic and diverse ecosystems that placed a focus on how ecosystems function. Although once seen as anarchic and challenging, the strategy was increasingly being considered inspiring and empowering and was rapidly becoming mainstream.
“Rewilding calls for strong connections with wildlife to be built and become central to decision-making around future restoration. We want to see strong connections to nature to help support the next generation push for the mass recovery of wildlife. The growing set of global examples shows that ‘wild’ urban areas can moderate local temperatures, improve health and wellbeing, and provide important habitats for wildlife to thrive, providing an important part of the response to the global climate and biodiversity crisis,” he said.
The report suggests that urban designs that support biodiversity can also effectively accelerate public health and wellbeing measures, as well as be cost-saving strategies in the long-term as the effects of climate change become an increasing economic burden. Urban rewilding projects can provide new ways for city-dwellers to engage with nature including through monitoring and stewardship processes.
“Large-scale rewilding should be done with expert guidance as ultimately, well-meaning but misguided efforts could actually lead to biodiversity loss, as well as increased threats to public health through invasive species, and disease transmission from wildlife.
“For the rewilding of urban spaces to work, we need the buy-in and support of policymakers, funders, conservation scientists and of course, local communities. There’s so much that the everyday person can do to support a positive change, like leaving part of the garden wild, and avoiding artificial turf and pesticides. We can all do our bit to secure a future where wildlife and people thrive,” Pettorelli said.
Anne Layton-Bennett