Agricultural rewilding: a prospect for livestock systems

Abstract

CONTEXT: Agricultural intensification is a major cause of biodiversity loss. Biodiversity conservation and restoration generally involve human intervention. In comparison, rewilding, a radically different approach to address the erosion of biodiversity, aims to increase the ability of ecological processes to act with little or no human intervention, and thus to enhance biodiversity and the supply of ecosystem services. OBJECTIVE: In this review and call to explore the potential of rewilding for agriculture, in particular for livestock systems, we identified effects of agroecological livestock systems on biodiversity and analysed similarities, differences and complementarities between the agroecological transition and the rewilding of livestock systems.METHODS: We researched literature in the Web of Science Core Collection that focussed on biodiversity, livestock, agriculture, rewilding and interactions among them.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Agricultural rewilding is an emerging form of land use that we conceptually position between agroecology and rewilding. It combines restoration of ecological processes with some degree of agricultural production, most often of animals. Over time, human land-use has aimed to increase plant and animal output, which has degraded the ecological integrity of ecosystems. This process of dewilding accelerated with the advent of agriculture. In recent decades, certain agricultural landscapes and farms have evolved in the opposite direction, decreasing material human inputs and improving ecological integrity. This evolution takes three forms: agroecological transition, agricultural rewilding and rewilding. Of these, the first and third concern relatively large areas. A selection of 11 agricultural rewilding projects established for at least 5 years in the United Kingdom had areas of 121-4402 ha. The projects targeted 48 key species/breeds, 23 of which were ecosystem engineers: 18 grazers, 4 pig breeds and beavers. The main actions to enhance rewilding were extensive grazing and habitat restoration. The main economic activities were meat or animal sales, tourism and education programmes. Agricultural rewilding may provide a multifunctional model to which livestock farms may transition to respond better to societal demands.SIGNIFICANCE: Agricultural rewilding offers a new and inspiring prospect for livestock systems and poses research questions about its relation to agroecology and rewilding, its implementation, its potential for plant production and its value for livestock farmers. The forms it can take remain to be explored, and the potential influence of these forms on biodiversity, ecosystem services and environmental impacts needs to be characterised. Exploring the forms that agricultural rewilding may take requires close collaboration among ecologists, animal scientists and agronomists.

24. Domesticating rewilding: combining rewilding and agriculture offers environmental and human benefits

“…The forms of rewilding which are emerging are more compatible with other types of land use and therefore more socially acceptable, leading to co-existence and tolerance rather than generating controversy. Indeed, the compromises made by rewilding allow for 'land sharing' with farming (rather than relying on land sparing for conservation), leading to the identification of 'agricultural rewilding' , a form of rewilding which aims to restore ecosystem functions using low-intensity human interventions involving the introduction, management, and harvest of livestock (Mondière et al, 2021). Agricultural rewilding offers the potential for win-win scenarios in which biodiversity is increased and ecosystems are restored along with active human intervention in landscapes and the provision of livelihoods which are financially and environmentally sustainable.…”