Rewilding nature

Yesterday, July 12, marked the 200th birth anniversary - the bicentennial - of Henry David Thoreau, a man whose very name evokes an image of a return to wilderness. Known for the time he spent living by himself,  in a log cabin he built near Walden Pond in Massachusetts, it was he who said that ‘all good things are wild and free’. 

Photograph courtesy Wikimedia Commons

We recently carried a photostory on Tal Chhapar, a small grassland in Rajasthan which was an arid, dusty ecosystem faced with increasing desertification in 2006. Today, it has been brought back to its original state of wild grassy greenery through the concerted efforts of local forest authorities, bringing back a host of animals, birds and reptiles with it. 

So we thought we’d look into the discipline of restoration ecology, and study how effective it’s been over the years. Restoration ecology evolved in the 1980s as a standalone academic field studying the renewal of degraded, damaged or destroyed ecosystems through active human intervention. It can range from preventive efforts to check soil erosion to more active strategies such as reforestation or the reintroduction of native species. The practices of restoration ecology have been followed traditionally and locally for decades, but the academic discipline seeks to understand the conditions and impacts better. 

Aerial view of the protected grassland at Tal Chhapar (right) vs unprotected land (left) that has been taken over by the invasive Prosopis juliflora. Photograph: Anuroop Krishnan

As is the case with many new and evolving disciplines which fight for recognition and a place in the academic spectrum, restoration ecology has had its critics. Some contest the illusion of returning a state to its ‘original’ state - a pertinent rebuttal as it creates what is known as a moral hazard - it sets the ground for, say mining companies, to justify their actions by engaging in restoration activities after the fact. A similar debate exists around the preservation of old-growth forests versus the regeneration of secondary forests after a timber harvest. 

George Monbiot, in his seminal book Feral, has talked extensively of the concept of rewilding, or bringing back land to its uncultivated state, especially by bringing back native animal species which had been driven out by human activities. Inspired by his book, the initiative Rewilding Britain was started in 2015 to bring back native species to a country that no longer has most of its large keystone species, such as wolves, whales, pelicans and sharks. A similar community-led initiative, Rewilding Europe, is working to bring back the European Bison, the continent’s biggest land mammal, back to sustainable numbers - today’s gene pool has been derived from just 12 individual bison. Japan, too, is in the process of rewilding its secondary single-species plantations to mixed-species forests, to help preserve the few remaining Golden Eagles which don’t find adequate prey in the timber plantations and are nearing extinction. 

European Bisons; photograph courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Closer home in India, restoration ecologists such as Dr. Sanjeeva Raj tinkered with the introduction of artificial reefs in inland waters of Chennai’s Neelankarai coastline between 1988 and 1995. After successfully attracting rich biodiversity and fisheries, the model is now being extended to other locations along the Indian coastline. In the Indonesian fishing village of Seraya Besar, local communities are restoring damaged coral reefs - not only are fish stocks on the rise, but the local ecosystem in and around Komodo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has also been benefitted. Scientists from the University of Hong Kong’s School of Biological Sciences have also successfully reintroduced corals into parts of the Tolo Harbour, a densely-populated and polluted residential area in north-west Hong Kong.   

Chromodorid nudibranch in Komodo National Park; photograph courtesy Wikimedia Commons

We may not be able to turn back the ecological clock, but as long as the relevant concerns are accepted and incorporated, restoration ecology seems to justify the need of the hour.

Cover: Reforestation in Southern Oregon, USA; photograph courtesy Wikimedia Commons