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Trophic Rewilding Advancement in Anthropogenically Impacted Landscapes (TRAAIL): A framework to link conventional conservation management and rewilding

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Abstract

A variety of rewilding initiatives are being implemented across Europe, generally characterized by a more functionalist approach to nature management compared to the classic compositional approach. To address the increasing need for a framework to support implementation of rewilding in practical management, we present TRAAIL—Trophic Rewilding Advancement in Anthropogenically Impacted Landscapes. TRAAIL has been co-produced with managers and other stakeholders and provides managers with a framework to categorize rewilding initiatives and to link conventional nature management and rewilding by guiding steps towards a higher degree of self-regulation. Applying TRAAIL to data obtained in a Danish survey of rewilding-inspired initiatives we find that out of 44 initiatives there is no “Full rewilding” initiatives, 3 “Near-full rewilding” initiatives, 23 “Partial rewilding” initiatives, 2 “minimal rewilding” initiatives and 16 “Effort-intensive conservation management” initiatives. This study shows how TRAAIL can guide and inform trophic rewilding on a local and national scale.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Aarhus University (PBMP) and the Aage V. Jensen Foundations (PBMP, RE). We also consider this study a contribution to JCS’s Carlsberg Foundation Semper Arden project MegaPast2Future (grant CF16-0005), to the Danish National Research Foundation Niels Bohr professorship project Aarhus University Research on the Anthropocene (AURA), and to JCS’ VILLUM Investigator project (VILLUM FONDEN, grant 16549). The authors would like to thank an editor and two reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve this work. For feedback on the TRAAIL model the authors would like to thank the members of EnviNa (Environment and Nature), The Nature Agency (Naturstyrelsen), and participants at the workshop “Visual Communication Clinic” at University of Cambridge (organized by University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute (UCCRI) and Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG)).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section for Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 116, 8000, Århus C, Denmark

    Pil Birkefeldt Møller Pedersen, Brody Sandel & Jens-Christian Svenning

  2. Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 116, 8000, Århus C, Denmark

    Pil Birkefeldt Møller Pedersen & Jens-Christian Svenning

  3. Section for Biodiversity & Conservation, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Grenåvej 14, Rønde, 8410, Århus, Denmark

    Pil Birkefeldt Møller Pedersen & Rasmus Ejrnæs

  4. Department of Biology, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA, 95053, USA

    Brody Sandel

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  1. Pil Birkefeldt Møller Pedersen
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Correspondence to Pil Birkefeldt Møller Pedersen.

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Pedersen, P.B.M., Ejrnæs, R., Sandel, B. et al. Trophic Rewilding Advancement in Anthropogenically Impacted Landscapes (TRAAIL): A framework to link conventional conservation management and rewilding. Ambio 49, 231–244 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01192-z

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