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Rewilding: Paul Jepson and Cain Blythe ****

Those who are enthusiastic about saving the environment often have a mixed relationship with science. They might for example, support organic farming or oppose nuclear power, despite organics having no nutritional benefit and requiring far more land to be used to raise the same amount of crops, while nuclear is a green energy source that should be seen as an essential support to renewables. This same confusion can extend to the concept of rewilding, which is one reason that the subtitle of this book uses the word 'radical'.

As Paul Jepson and Cain Blythe make clear, though, radical change is what is required if we are to encourage ecological recovery. To begin with, we need to provide environments for nature that take in the big picture - thinking not just of individual nature reserves but, for example, of corridors that link areas allowing safe species migration. And we also need to move away from an arbitrary approach to restricting to 'native' species, as sometimes what will enable effective rewilding is to import a large herbivore (often the key to a rewilding scheme) that is similar to an species that used to be native but has now disappeared. It's simply not possible to prissily stick exactly and only to native species - especially as many species (humans included outside of Africa) have over the millennia migrated to many new environments.

Jepson and Blythe describe some remarkable successes, often in the face of resistance from traditional environmental or ecological opinions. There are the headline issues that tend to capture the public's attention, of course, such as wolves taking farmers' livestock, but often the difficulties faced by those who understand that rewilding is a really important step forward come from those who should be celebrating this return to nature in a new and creative way.

Parts of the book work better than others. Some bits feel a little on the stodgy academic writing side, but then we'll get into the story of a particular project and the narrative becomes engaging again. This is in an important topic, often treated as fringe, that deserves more exposure, which this book should provide.

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Review by Brian Clegg
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