By Nicola McGunnigle, Douglas Bardsley, Ian Nuberg, and Bishnu Hari Pandit.
Rewilding is a term adopted in recent years by nature conservation and restoration groups to encourage ecosystem regeneration on disturbed landscapes. Yet in some parts of the world, including Nepal, forest is naturally regenerating on abandoned agricultural land with no intention or intervention. There is no doubt that there are many benefits of increasing forest, from biodiversity conservation to land and soil stabilisation, but we wondered about the local perceptions of people experiencing it happening on their farmland. Was it a good outcome for rural landholders in Nepal, where for many thousands of years the majority of the population have relied on this land for their livelihoods?
We talked to famers who had forest regenerating on former crop land and asked them to identify the species that they saw, what benefits they associated with those species and the challenges to attaining any benefits. We also examined perceptions of rewilding with professionals working in forest, land and conservation in Nepal. There was a clearly negative association with the words “wild” and “wilderness” due to experiences of human-wildlife conflict and strong perceptions of the emergence of invasive plant species. Incidents of crop disturbance and livestock destruction faced more so in recent years suggested that formally adopting the term “rewilding” in this environment would be a difficult task despite essentially being the same ecological process as natural forest regeneration. The term “regenerating forest”, however, was perceived more positively with rural households who recognised diverse livelihood benefits from the range of regenerating species and some have adapted agroforest systems using regenerating species.
We identified that policy development around land use change needs to realise that multiple issues lead to and arise from agrarian-forest transitions. Diverse livelihood benefits were recognised by rural households in the study area, with some respondents adopting agroforestry systems using regenerating species. Regenerating forests could contribute to global biodiversity targets through development pathways promoting the emerging biota that also contribute to livelihood benefits. Steps to work with, rather than against, the causes and effects of natural regeneration could deliver positive outcomes for sustainable livelihoods and biodiversity conservation in Nepal and beyond, whether the process is called rewilding or not.
Relational Thinking 