Blog post
There's rewilding, and there's rewilding
Workshop participants come up with different definitions of rewilding and forests
By Ravi van de Port
Wageningen University and Research hosted the first Forest and Rewilding Workshop from 7-9 November, 2023. Researchers from around Europe and further afield came together for three dynamic days of discussions, presentations and reflections.
Each participant shared their views on questions related to the meaning of rewilding in a forest landscape, how rewilding is (or could be) related to forest management, what are the consequences for forests and society, how context dependent are these concepts and what is the overall potential and limitations of rewilding in connection to forests. As might be expected with a room full of people from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds and geographic locations, the discussions were lively, critical and inspiring. We soon realised definitions of rewilding and even forests could be quite different in different contexts!
Workshop participants had the opportunity to go on a small excursion to the storm recreation forest in Hoenderloo, facilitated by ARK Rewilding The Netherlands, a pioneer in rewilding and a founding partner of Rewilding Europe. Walking through the Dutch forest, being led by Judith Slagt (FNP) and Dirk Goudkuil (ARK), our imaginations running wild with bison roaming around (there are plans to reintroduce them to this area!) was very exciting.
In addition to the workshop, there was a public event hosted in the Omnia conference building with guest speakers Liesbeth Bakker, Agata Konczal, Jurgen Bauhus and moderated by Lawrence Walter-Jones. The speakers shared their views on rewilding and forests with an audience of students and staff from Wageningen, and others from outside the university. This was followed by another interesting and inspiring discussion round, which continued over some drinks and snacks even after the event.
The workshop was a great success and set a promising baseline to explore the prospects for the interplay between rewilding and forests in future. The organisers would like to thank everyone who attended!