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Rewilding
Reconnect with nature
Rewilding seeks to restore areas degraded because of human actions to recover their balance and biodiversity. This environmental conservation approach, which uses nature-based solutions, employs techniques such as the introduction of keystone species, the removal of human interferences, or the restoration of processes that occurred in these ecosystems, among others, in order to make these ecosystems self-sufficient again and also to promote the sustainable economic development of these areas.
Moreover, these nature-based solutions help to mitigate climate change, both through the recovery of plant species and through the restoration of the water cycle or the introduction of species that help to restore processes that were typical of that ecosystem and had been lost. Do you want to know what rewilding is in more detail? We tell you all about it.
What is rewilding?
To understand what rewilding is and how this restoration of ecosystems damaged by humans is carried out, it is useful to know the three principles on which it is based.
Consequently, rewilding has the effect of returning the ecosystem to a state close to the original one, in which these processes were carried out without the need for human intervention.
Origin and history of rewilding
Rewilding is quite a recent conservation strategy, which originated just over 30 years ago and which today has become a global trend.
The term rewilding was first used at the start of the 90s by the environmental activist David Foreman, editor of the ‘Wild Earth’ magazine and founder of the Rewilding Institute in 2003. Foreman based his rewilding concept on the introduction of animal species, especially large carnivores, into habitats they had disappeared from. It wasn't just about recovering biodiversity, but doing so with a sufficient population to allow these ecosystems to recover their autonomy.
In 1998, conservation biologists and researchers Michael Soulé and Reed Noss published the article 'Rewilding and biodiversity: complementary goals for continental conservation’, in which as well as using the term coined by Foreman, they recovered his theory of the introduction of large carnivores.
Although this strategy was a novelty in the field of conservation, the term rewilding remained unknown outside of academia until 2020, when science popularizer David Attenborough used it in 2020 in the documentary 'A Life on Our Planet'.
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Types of rewilding
Nature-based solutions are diverse. As well as those previously mentioned, rewilding techniques include the following:
Rewilding to address climate change
Among many other advantages, rewilding also has potential for mitigation and adaptation to climate change, in several ways:
At Repsol, we have a commitment to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Some principles of this management are the commitment to not operate in biodiversity-sensitive areas, impact assessment, and the restoration of the environment in which we develop our activity.
Our company takes part in projects to promote biodiversity, such as the restoration in 2022 of 3 hectares of corals in the reefs of the Veracruz Reef System National Park, in conjunction with the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) and the company Oceanus A.C.
Moreover, through the Repsol Foundation's Green Engine initiative, we reforest burned or barren land with native species, to recover biodiversity while we generate local and inclusive employment.