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The Guardian view on rewilding Scotland: an immodest proposal | Editorial


What exactly is meant by rewilding depends on who is talking about it. The term was coined by Dave Foreman, a leading figure in the 1980s wave of environmental direct action in the US, to describe the kind of large-scale wilderness restoration he and others advocated. Their idea was that conservationists should move beyond trying to protect particular beauty spots or species, and focus on rebuilding ecosystems that could sustain themselves with minimal human interference.

Since then, rewilding projects in the US, Europe and South America have seen huge areas given over to efforts – funded by wealthy individuals as well as governments – to support flora and fauna to recover from the damage inflicted over centuries. Large mammals have been reintroduced, or supported to extend their territories where they had become extinct: wolves in the north-western US, elk in Denmark, Iberian lynx in Spain. In its most dramatic versions, rewilding emphasises the role of apex predators and megafauna including elephants, and suggests that such creatures could one day return to swaths of the planet from which they long ago disappeared.

The version of rewilding being proposed by Danish clothing billionaires Anders and Anne Holch Povlsen, the largest private landowners in Scotland, is altogether more modest. The Povlsens want to remove sheep and cull red deer from the 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres) they own across Sutherland and the Grampian mountains in order to allow native species to flourish. Provided they can prove their project is in the public interest, and take it forward in a way that ensures they are democratically accountable, their contribution should be welcomed. There are precedents to build on, with the reintroduction of beavers to Scotland a noted rewilding success.

This does not mean concerns about the concentration of land ownership highlighted this week by the Scottish Land Commission can be brushed aside. The report, commissioned by ministers, called for radical measures including compulsory purchase orders in cases where landowners are shown to have behaved contrary to agreed standards, for example in their treatment of tenant farmers. Policymakers are overdue in giving this subject their attention. Historic inequalities as well as environmental considerations must be addressed.

The role of rewilding landowners must be scrutinised along with the rest. Voters and politicians will decide whether such schemes, sponsored by philanthropists, are what they want. But given the challenges faced by conservationists in our age of extinction, with the desperate efforts now under way to save the Scottish wildcat just one example, and golden eagles and red squirrels also under threat, it is to be hoped the Povlsens’ enthusiasm for wildlife can be harnessed, along with that of millions of other people, to beneficial effect.



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