The Return of the Wild: rewilding Scotland
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Transcript of The Return of the Wild: rewilding Scotland
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„The Return of the Wild: conceptions of rewilding in the
Scottish Highlands‟
Holly Deary,
Supported by Scottish Land & Estates and the Association of Deer Management Groups
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PresentationOutline
• Restoring ‘wildness’ to the Scottish Highlands
• Distinctness of the Scottish wild land context,
• Challenges to moving Scotland’s wild land agenda forward,
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Restoring Wildness
Principles
• Landscape scale conservation, • Promoting wilderness qualities, • Ecological processes as paramount, • Minimal intervention,
Practices .......................
• Manipulation of grazing pressure,i.e. Removing sheep, culling deer,
• Restoration of hill tracks, • Restructuring plantations,
„Long term vision for core reserves of wild land where natural processes dominate‟
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Unanswered Questions
• What level of agreement is there over definitions of ‘rewilding’/’enhancingwildness and methods for its practical application?’
• How compatible is enhancing wildness with our current subscriptions to moreconventional conservation strategies?
• Does ‘managing for wildness’ make sense in the Scottish context as a landmanagement strategy?
• What are the primary fault lines associated with ‘managing for wildness’ inScotland?
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A „wild land‟ Delphi model
Eclectic mix of 18 estates (i.e. Private, NGO, Trust ownership)
An adapted Delphi model- Structured communication system,
- Series of rounds, - Expert panel,
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Ambiguous terminology
Uniquely Scottish context
Lack of conceptual clarity
Integrating agendas
Clashing imperatives
The „rewilding‟ Fault-lines
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1. Ambiguous terminology
• Lack of consensus as to what the emergent environmental ethic means,
• Lack of understanding as to how it should be manifested in the landscape,
• Interchangeable terminology
• Conflicting views of the concept in accordance with parameters used to understand ‘wild land’,
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2. Distinctly Scottish Wild Land Context
Heavily managed landscapes to retain the high biodiversity and socio-economic benefits associated with them,
Conservation must co-exist with other land management practices in Scotland,
Distinct Scottish ‘wild land’ terminology framework,
“There are some large areas of Scotland, particularly in the north and west, whose largely semi-natural landscapes show minimal signs of
human influence” (Scottish Natural Heritage, 2012)
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Is rewilding, with its implicit values of naturalness,authenticity and historical fidelity, capable of coping withthe complexity of natural and cultural heritage in theScottish Highlands?
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3. Lack of conceptual clarity
• Does managing for wildness in a cultural landscape make sense?
• Where is the cultural value of these hybrid landscapes positioned within the restoration framework?
• What is the teleological state of naturalness that some of these estates are aspiring to?
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4. Integrating agendas
• Incompatibility between current nature conservation agenda and ‘wild land agenda’......
• Restrictiveness of a policy framework still founded upon the ‘nature under threat’ approach to conservation.....
• Holistic, landscape scale, minimal intervention approach vs. targeted biodiversity agendas.......
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5.Clashing imperatives
• Sterilisation of the Highlands.....
• Embrace Scotland’s cultural heritage......
• Reconciling ‘wildness’ with more traditional land uses....
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Conclusions to date....
Approaches for managing wild land in Scotland are diffuse & disparate, and depend on the parameters of ‘wild land’ employed,
Scotland’s natural and cultural heritage necessitates a pragmatic understanding of rewilding in the same way that wild land provides a pragmatic understanding of wilderness,
Conservation strategies founded upon wildness remain controversial among many Scottish land managers – such challenges must be overcome to move Scotland’s wild strategy forward,
Restoration through active interventions.
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Thank you