Rewilding Voices: Connecting science, policy, local communities and beyond
Momentum around rewilding is continuing to grow, with the hope that it could be adopted on a larger scale and across various contexts. To ensure that this can be achieved in a way that simultaneously tackles climate, societal and economic challenges, approaches to rewilding must consider a diverse range of voices, opinions and needs of communities and stakeholders.
Together with the WILDCARD and REWRITE projects, we are developing Rewilding Voices - a space to foster an inclusive dialogue on rewilding.
What is Rewilding Voices?
Rewilding Voices is a collaborative initiative between wildE and our two sibling projects REWRITE and WILDCARD. By uniting rewilding projects with diverse focuses, we can ensure that conversations surrounding rewilding and ecological restoration are inclusive and reflect a broad range of voices.
Rewilding is increasingly being explored as a nature-based solution which can support biodiversity and also address key societal issues such as climate resilience, rural development and social cohesion. However, barriers to the acceptance of rewilding more widely in society still exist.
Our initiative aims to create a platform to form and listen to a rewilding community, bringing forward success stories, different perspectives, ideas, experiences and memories around wilderness and rewilding. Our purpose is to identify and build community-driven synergies and upscale the adoption of rewilding as an approach to nature restoration.
Through this collaboration, we can collectively share and promote outcomes and opportunities for rewilding, while maintaining our own unique approaches to the initiative.
The wildE project approach
In the wildE project, Rewilding Voices is creating a series of filmed discussions and interviews focused on different topics related to rewilding. Through these videos, we’re connecting scientists and policymakers with local communities and other stakeholders to explore different opportunities to upscale rewilding.
The first wildE Rewilding Voices discussion took place at the iconic rewilding site of Gelderse Poort, Netherlands, and brought together representatives from Wild Europe, Fundación Internacional para la Restauración de Ecosistemas, Society for Ecological Restoration, European Wilderness Society and Rewilding Europe, as well as an independent ecologist to discuss the potential for upscaling rewilding.
The discussions explored rewilding through various lenses, including agriculture, the economy, and more. It emphasised that any potential for advancing ecosystem restoration must embrace the value of collaboration and shared experience, as well as indigenous knowledge and inclusive decision-making.
You can watch more of the interviews and discussions from the first output of Rewilding Voices on the IUCN YouTube channel.
Get involved with Rewilding Voices
Over the next two years of our project, we will be hosting further Rewilding Voices discussions to enrich the dialogue surrounding rewilding. Each of these discussions will be co-designed by the wildE project and the participating stakeholders, and can take varying formats and lengths depending on the topic.
We are open to receiving proposals for topics and suggestions of relevant stakeholders to contact. If you have an idea that you would like to contribute to this initiative, get in touch with us by submitting the form below.