The change of European landscapes: Human-nature relationships, public attitudes towards rewilding, and the implications for landscape management in Switzerland

Bauer, Nicole; Wallner, Astrid; Hunziker, Marcel

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2008.01.021

Cited by 153 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Abandoned farmland is often perceived negatively as it is associated with the perception of unkept land and with the decrease on the economic usability of the land, particularly by the rural populations (Hochtl et al 2005;Bauer et al 2009). However there are many ecosystems services that are provided by this type of landscapes, particularly indirect and non-use services, which are often disregarded in the process of policy-making (TEEB 2010).…”

Section: Benefits Of Rewilding For People: Ecosystem Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Though many European countries have implemented regulations to protect large carnivores, such legislation is not understood and accepted by all (Breitenmoser 1998). In particular, they accentuate a cleavage in opinions amongst countries and between rural and urban populations (Bauer et al 2009;Wilson 2004) the latter being usually more favorable to a wildlife comeback.…”

Section: Conflicts With Wildlifementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rewilding has seldom been considered as a land management policy, as often it faces resistance from both the public (Enserink and Vogel 2006;Bauer et al 2009) and the scientific communities (Conti and Moreira and Russo 2007). Arguments against rewilding include the loss of the traditional agricultural landscape and negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services (for example, Conti and Fagarazzi 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rewilding Abandoned Landscapes in Europe

Navarro¹,

Pereira²

2015

Rewilding European Landscapes

273

324

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For millennia, mankind has shaped landscapes, particularly through agriculture. In Europe, the age-old interaction between humans and ecosystems strongly influenced the cultural heritage. Yet European farmland is now being abandoned, especially in remote areas. The loss of the traditional agricultural landscapes and its consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem services is generating concerns in both the scientific community and the public. Here we ask to what extent farmland abandonment can be considered as an opportunity for rewilding ecosystems. We analyze the perceptions of traditional agriculture in Europe and their influence in land management policies. We argue that, contrary to the common perception, traditional agriculture practices were not environmentally friendly and that the standards of living of rural populations were low. We suggest that current policies to maintain extensive farming landscapes underestimate the human labor needed to sustain these landscapes and the recent and future dynamics of the socio-economic drivers behind abandonment. We examine the potential benefits for ecosystems and people from rewilding. We identify species that could benefit from land abandonment and forest regeneration and the ecosystem services that could be provided such as carbon sequestration and recreation. Finally, we discuss the challenges associated with rewilding, including the need to maintain open areas, the fire risks, and the conflicts between people and wildlife. Despite these challenges, we argue that rewilding should be recognized by policy-makers as one of the possible land management options in Europe, particularly on marginal areas.

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Section: Benefits Of Rewilding For People: Ecosystem Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conflicts With Wildlifementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Rewilding Abandoned Landscapes in Europe

Navarro¹,

Pereira²

2015

Rewilding European Landscapes

273

324

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…As different social groups have diverse expectations of a landscape [27], they may evaluate its scenic beauty differently. Bauer et al [35] showed in their study in Switzerland that the German-speaking part had a positive attitude to increasing forest areas while the French-and Italian-speaking parts had a negative attitude to the same phenomenon. Beza [11] explained the different perceptions of a mountain landscape between tourists and the local population by specific cultural ideas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Different studies examined whether landscape perceptions depend on social groups [11,18,26,35]. Bourassa [18] refers to cultural rules which play an important role for perceived scenic beauty, because humans' perceptions are related to specific backgrounds creating social groups which are derived from cultural developments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can We Model the Scenic Beauty of an Alpine Landscape?

et al. 2013

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During the last decade, agriculture has lost its importance in many European mountain regions and tourism, which benefits from attractive landscapes, has become a major source of income. Changes in landscape patterns and elements might affect scenic beauty and therefore the socio-economic welfare of a region. Our study aimed at modeling scenic beauty by quantifying the influence of landscape elements and patterns in relationship to distance. Focusing on Alpine landscapes in South and North Tyrol, we used a photographic questionnaire showing different landscape compositions. As mountain landscapes offer long vistas, we related scenic beauty to different distance zones. Our results indicate that the near zone contributes by 64% to the valuation of scenic beauty, the middle zone by 22%, and the far zone by 14%. In contrast to artificial elements, naturalness and diversity increased scenic beauty. Significant differences between different social groups (origin, age, gender, cultural background) occurred only between the local population and tourists regarding great landscape changes. Changes towards more homogenous landscapes were perceived negatively, thus political decision makers should support the conservation of the cultural landscape.

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Assessing social perceptions of rewilding approaches in Spain using traditional domestic livestock

Pérez‐Barbería

Gordon

2023

J Wildl Manag

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Rewilding is habitat restoration that attempts to return ecosystems to their state before human alterations were imposed. Rewilding might involve actions that are not desired by society. As a result, a compromised form of rewilding has been proposed that is generally known as rewilding lite, which involves some human intervention to achieve the goals of a more natural state of ecosystems that were historically disturbed by anthropogenic influences. Rewilding lite is gaining traction in Europe where marginal agriculture areas are being abandoned. We addressed a variant that we called livestock rewilding (LR) based on the use of herbivorous livestock species to restore ecological functions and trophic complexity (functional integrity) in abandoned agricultural landscapes. Our objective was to assess societal attitudes and awareness of LR in Spain based on the answers of 1,036 respondents of a self‐selecting questionnaire of 27 closed‐ended questions addressed to the general public using snowball sampling, conducted between March and July 2021. Seventy‐five percent of the respondents supported LR but only on the condition of imposing minimum hazards to people, crops, and property. Ranchers were the least likely societal group to support LR (58%). Women had the greatest enthusiasm for LR (79% women vs. 71% men). Horses, donkeys, and goats were the most preferred species to be included in LR programs, with pigs as the least popular after cattle and sheep. There was support for the removal of excess individuals of rewilded livestock and for the use of their meat for human consumption, especially among male respondents. Respondents were reticent to accept mortality in LR populations caused by natural stochastic events and discriminated between livestock species for population control methods. Respondents preferred non‐lethal methods of population control; involving hunters was a second choice. Some hunters were reluctant to participate in population control of rewilded livestock, especially if they had to pay, and were reticent to shoot equids but keen to shoot goats. There was general support among Spanish respondents for LR, though there were significant differences between societal groups in attitudes towards the type, species, and intensity of management required to minimize hazards to people's health, crops, and the environment. Livestock rewilding is a plausible tool for the restoration of trophic complexity in abandoned agricultural land in Spain that could be used to circumvent the introduction of allochthonous wild species.

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The change of European landscapes: Human-nature relationships, public attitudes towards rewilding, and the implications for landscape management in Switzerland

Cited by 153 publications

References 51 publications

Rewilding Abandoned Landscapes in Europe

Rewilding Abandoned Landscapes in Europe

Can We Model the Scenic Beauty of an Alpine Landscape?

Assessing social perceptions of rewilding approaches in Spain using traditional domestic livestock

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