Rewilding: The Radical New Science of Ecological Recovery: The Illustrated Edition

How rewilding has transformed the conservation movement, combining radical scientific insights with practical innovations.


Progressive scientists and conservation professionals are pursuing a radical new approach to restoring ecosystems: rewilding. By recovering the ripple effect generated by the interactions among plant and animal species and natural disturbances, rewilding seeks to repair ecosystems by removing them from human engineering and reassembling guilds of megafauna from a mix of surviving wild and feral species and de-domesticated breeds, including elk, bison, and feral horses. Written by two leaders in the field, this book offers an abundantly illustrated guide to the science of rewilding. It shows in fascinating detail the ways in which ecologists are reassembling ecosystems that allow natural interactions rather than human interventions to steer their environmental trajectories.

Rewilding looks into a past in which industrialization and globalization downgraded grasslands, describes current projects designed to recover self-willed ecosystems, and envisions the future with ten predictions for a rewilded planet. It shows how rewilding is shaking up conservation science and policy, bringing new hope and renewed purpose to efforts to revive essential ecological processes. Color illustrations capture moments of beauty in nature and offer enlightening infographics and visualizations.

ISBN-13: 9780262046763

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: MIT Press

Publication Date: 04-05-2022

Pages: 224

Product Dimensions: 6.81(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.93(d)

Paul Jepson is Nature Recovery Lead with Ecosulis Ltd. and former director of the University of Oxford’s MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation, and Management. During a forty-year career in conservation, he has worked in the UK, Brazil, and countries in Asia. Cain Blythe, Managing Director of Ecosulis Ltd., specializes in habitat restoration, particularly through the adoption of natural regeneration techniques, nature recovery, and the use of technology in conservation.

Table of Contents

Introduction 6
Geological Timeline 10
1 New Horizons 12
2 Megafauna Pasts 22
3 Downgrading our Planet 42
4 Rewilding's Practical Origins 72
5 Cascades, Spaces, Networks & Engineers 98
6 Earth System Impacts 116
7 Rewilding Politics & Ethics 138
8 Scaling up Rewilding 164
9 10 Predictions for the Future 190
Sources & Further Reading 214
Index 218
Acknowledgments 224 Show More