Auto-rewilding in Post-industrial Cities: The Case of Inland Cormorants in Urban Britain

Abstract

The last forty years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) moving inland away from British coastlines. Britain's largest inland colony currently reside at Walthamstow Wetlands, a nature reserve and functional reservoir system in northeast London, recently branded 'Europe's largest urban wetland'. Here, great cormorants are embroiled in contested ideas of nature. Celebrated by conservationists for their resilience and adaptability, yet hounded by anglers for launching ecological chaos on rivers and reservoirs and disrupting the balance that is imagined for urban recreational spaces.This paper argues for a more nuanced version of rewilding that acknowledges the biogeographical complexity and mobility of nonhumans in relation to radically altered ecologies and post-industrial urban environments. It uses the conceptual frame of more-thanhuman to examine the increased presence, mobility, and agency of great cormorants at Walthamstow Wetlands in terms of nonhuman autonomy and auto-rewilding. The findings demonstrate that the self-relocation and autonomous occupation of inland cormorants in Walthamstow are intimately entangled with human histories and activities, and that they are active alongside humans in creating novel ecosystems.

When the Bear Comes to Town: How the City Could Create Nature

“…Rewilding is "an ambitious and optimistic agenda for conservation, centered on the (re)establishment of ecological processes with a less controlling or coercive management approach by humans" [101] . Most studies about rewilding have focused on what rewilded non-human species, the so-called keystone, flagship, indicator, or umbrella species [103][104][105] , contribute to ecosystem functions and -services [106] . Their ecological engineering capabilities aim to benefit humans, species, or landscapes [107] .…”

“…Therefore, urban rewilding is an urban process that is occurring [120,121] as a 'spontaneous, autonomous occupation of [urban] space by nonhuman animals' [122] . Autonomous 'activities of animals themselves' [123] to move and relocate where they previously didn't occur, being 'out of place' or 'invasive' [106] is defined as auto-rewilding. The mobility of various animal, bird, and plant species responding to human activities is more complex and fluid than a simple in/out of place stigma [124] .…”

Community Perception of Brownfield Regeneration through Urban Rewilding

“…Revitalizing patches of urban land can create possibilities for damaged ecosystems to regenerate, reverting to natural systems and processes that can help address many of the present concerns we face, including climate change, increased flooding risk, poor air quality, pollution and biodiversity loss, and by creating a chain of similar connected areas and networks [31,35,36]. Clancy and Ward (2020) investigated the concept of auto-rewilding in drastically transformed urban and post-industrial contexts [37]. They emphasized that the effects of having auto-rewilded species in post-industrial environments needed to go beyond the negative perception of invasion and harm [37].…”

“…Clancy and Ward (2020) investigated the concept of auto-rewilding in drastically transformed urban and post-industrial contexts [37]. They emphasized that the effects of having auto-rewilded species in post-industrial environments needed to go beyond the negative perception of invasion and harm [37]. Recently, Pettorelli et al 2019 identified three main themes in the definitions of rewilding in academic literature, but the meaning can vary depending on the observer's perspective [38].…”