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culling exotic species which cannot be contained by native wildlife),
pulling down the fences, blocking the drainage ditches, but otherwise
stepping back. At sea, it means excluding commercial fishing and
other forms of exploitation. The ecosystems that result are best
described not as wilderness, but as self-willed: governed not by human
management but by their own processes.*Rewilding has no end
points, no view about what a 'right' ecosystem or a 'right' assemblage
of species looks like. It does not strive to produce a heath, a meadow,
a rainforest, a kelp garden or a coral reef. It lets nature decide.
The ecosystems that will emerge, in our changed climates, on our
depleted soils, will not be the same as those which prevailed in the
past. The way they evolve cannot be predicted, which is one of the
reasons why this project enthralls. While conservation often looks to
the past, rewilding of this kind looks to the future.
The rewilding of both land and sea could produce ecosystems, even
in such depleted regions as Britain and northern Europe, as profuse
and captivating as those that people now travel halfway around the
world to see. One of my hopes is that it makes magnificent wildlife
accessible to everyone.
I mentioned that there are two definitions of rewilding that inter-
est me. The second is the rewilding of human life. While some
primitivists see a conflict between the civilized and the wild, the rewil-
ding I envisage has nothing to do with shedding civilization. We can,
I believe, enjoy the benefits of advanced technology while also enjoy-
ing, if we choose, a life richer in adventure and surprise. Rewilding is
not about abandoning civilization but about enhancing it. It is to 'love
not man the less, but Nature more'. 8
The consequences of abandoning a sophisticated economy,
supported by high crop yields, would be catastrophic. Before farm-
ingĀ  began in Britain, for example, these islands appear to have
supported a maximum of 5,000 people. 9 Had they been evenly dis-
persed, each person would have occupied 54 square kilometres, an
area slightly larger than the city of Southampton (which now houses
240,000 souls). 10 This, it seems, was as many people as hunting and
* This term was coined by Jay Hansford Vest. 7 It has been championed by Dr Mark
Fisher, whose work has been inluential in shaping this topic.
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