The capercaillie – or Tetrao urogallus – was a common breeding bird throughout most of our history. Essentially a relic from the Ice Age, it was common in our early pine forests throughout the Stone and Bronze Ages. However, it clearly became less common during the Iron and Middle Ages, when widespread deforestation and heath formation took place. In Eastern and Central Europe, as well as the Alps, Appenines, and other mountainous areas, the capercaillie was a luxury item avidly hunted by the elite. Cooked like any game bird with onions, apples, berries, wild mushrooms and roots, wine, and honey would be added to the spiced sauce. According to the Irish Vikings, it tasted good with mead. Together with gannets, storks, herons, sparrowhawks, grey partridges, pheasants, and cranes, the capercaillie would grace the tables in the lord’s hall.

The capercaillie is a true giant. The male bird can reach up to 100 cm and weigh 6 kg, while the females only reach 2.5 kg; about the size of a goose and a small duck. The most exciting thing about the capercaillies is, of course, the males’ plumage. With a green breast, brown wings, and white spots on its spread-out tail, it’s easily recognizable by its dance and its marvelous cackling and croaking call. While its closest relative, the black grouse, prefers heaths and boggy areas, capercaillies are fond of pine forests with bogs and older pine woods. However, these forests should ideally be grazed by large ungulates to create the varied and open landscapes providing both shelter and open “ballrooms,” as biologists tell us (Ludwig 2023).

The Bavarian Alps and The Schwarzwald are home to the last remaining metapopulations of Capercaillies in Germany.

In a new study, long-term data from the Bavarian Alps was brought together to answer the primary question about the long-term trend development of the Capercaillie population in the Alps. More precisely, the scientists evaluated spring censuses from a total of seventy courtship sites from the Werdenfelser Land, the central Mangfallgebirge, and the transition between the eastern Mangfallgebirge and the western Chiemgau Alps over almost 40 years. The average trend across the three areas studied corresponded to a significant annual decline of 1.86%, or 60% for the whole period. For the first 25 years, the dwindling numbers were gradual. After 2010, however, a continuous annual decline of 6.57% set in. The results coincide with many deserted courtship areas. These results correspond to continuing declines in Capercaillie ranges elsewhere. Although the capercaillie is not redlisted worldwide, it is a fine barometer of the combined stress induced by climate and outdoor tourism.

According to Ludwig and his group of researchers, silvicultural changes associated with rising temperatures are the primary cause, but also strongly increasing recreational pressure on the last Capercaillie refuges is likely related to the observed trends. In Bavarian research, the impact of “off-piste” winter sports is mentioned. Also, the public support of these sports, augmented by websites marking our off-piste trails, seems to have pushed the consumption of the wilderness to new heights. Despite prohibitions against people staying overnight as well as e-mountain biking, which are deemed to disturb the fowls in wintertime causing their premature death, these conclusions are confirmed by the results from Cairngorm in Scotland.

Mountain biking in Cairngorms

The Capercaillie is primarily associated with conifer woodlands in Scotland, especially mature Scots pine forests with an understory of heather, bilberry, and cowberry. In the 18th century, the capercaillie became extinct in Scotland, Ireland, and northern England, following extensive felling of pinewood habitats to establish grazing enclosures. However, in the 19th century, the bird was reintroduced in Scotland by landowners with an interest in shooting. In recent years, though, numbers have decreased.

The reasons for the recent reductions in numbers and range are poorly understood, but habitat deterioration, increased predation, fence collisions, and insect shortages in June seem to cause poor chick survival. Since the recent reduction in numbers, there has been a voluntary moratorium by landowners on shooting. However, as in Bavaria, there has been no sign that this has reversed the decline.

To a large extent, the experience of the capercaillies in Cairngorm National Park matches those from the Bavarian Alps. Here, the impact of outdoor activities on their “playgrounds” or “dancing grounds” serves as a reliable indicator that birds do actually inhabit a place. However, the conclusion is that capercaillies avoid mountain bike trails up to 500 meters on each side of a trail, while they only avoid 150 meters from a hiking path. In Cairngorm, this means that only 39% of the forests and 45% of the scrub areas are actually used by the birds, which have contributed to the region’s famous whisky, Capercaillie Scotch Whisky. Half of all dancing grounds were within these untouched areas, and 95% were less than 200 meters from the center of these untouched places. Hiking paths were deemed only half as disturbing.

Capercaillies in Croatia

Croatia is another location, where the Capercaillies are being helped along. In 2019 the Central European Breeding Centre Tetrijeb was officially opened, and in 2022, the project joined Rewilding Europe’s network.

SOURCES

Deutliche Rückgänge des Auerhuhns Tetrao urogallus
in den Bayerischen Alpen
Tobias Ludwig, Florian Bossert, Anton Kling, Franz Weindl and Helmut Ellrott
In: Ornithol. Anz. (2023) Vol 61

Mapping the distribution of outdoor activities to assess their impacts on capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus). Evidence from user-generated geographic information
By Leonie Schulz, and Martin Price
In: The 10th MMV Conference: Managing outdoor recreation experiences in the Anthropocene – Resources, markets, innovations
Red. Af: By Øystein Aas, Monica Breiby, Sofie K. Selvaag, Per-Ambjørn Eriksson, Brigithe og Børrestad)
Norwegian University of Life Sciences Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Oslo 2021
ISSN 2535-2806

The post Is the Capercaillie Next on the Extinction List in Europe? appeared first on Wilder Europe.

Apocalypticism seems to have become increasingly fashionable in the last decade. One reason is, that the idea of the End of the World has once again been fed to foster a political movement fuelled by the angry disenfranchised and seemingly oppressed people of the rural heartlands – the farmers, the males, the uneducated, and the other hopeless, fat trash and rabble circulating on the peripheries of the cities and their privileged meritocracies. As many have noted, this is a powder keg skilfully manipulated by modern despots and wannabee dictators like Putin, Orban and Trump. Apocalypses appear among the oppressed and are harnessed by the oppressors.

Unfortunately, disregard for the concerns of ordinary people among the elite tends to be the order of the day, leaving the little people with the choice of opting for either tragedy: passivism or dictatorial prevention. From this point of perspective, freedom and liberation form a phantasmagoria or utopia, while mushroom clouds and flooded landscapes invade our dreamscapes.

Positive Apocalypticism

Most political scientists and meritocrats will claim that the best way forward is to disregard the apocalypses floating around. By continuing to micromanage the system, we shall overcome the resistance and the uproar, they claim.

However, modern politicians who disregard this apocalyptic thinking are in danger of missing out on the point of the profound fright voiced by the people on the periphery. The question is not so much whether apocalypses are floating around and how to dispel them, but rather, which kinds of apocalypses (or concerns) are being floated. This is not the right way forward, argues Joe P. L. Davidson in a new article published in the American Political Science Review.

He claims that studies of various apocalypses – or worldquakes – are important to carry out. Concrete apocalyptic thinking offers valuable insights. He writes: “First, the end of the world is a means of interpreting the historical situation of oppression. It demonstrates the limitations on possibilities within the contours of current society, highlighting the fact that oppression is bound up with the social order in its totality… Secondly, the apocalypse from below functions as a “possibility-disclosing practice” aimed at keeping “the possibility of a different future open, resisting resignation and accommodation to what is”.

He argues that a scrutiny of the apocalypses floated from below – but not those from above – will reveal in what manner the present system oppresses the disenfranchised by identifying the hidden structure of the oppression. Unfortunately, he does not present examples of how this has been done in the past or present. By not supplying such examples, he miscalculates the need to analyse both types of apocalypses – those presented from below and those presented from above. One example may suffice.

The Sixth Extinction

One of the current apocalypses floating around is “The Sixth Extinction”, summarised as the imminent breakdown of our nature caused by the rapidly accelerating extinction of species of flora and fauna. Often claimed to be more threatening than the climate crisis, this particular apocalypse has its own circle of UN CUPs with appended herds of educated masses of NGOs, green politicians and business entrepreneurs vying for the development of the new market opportunities invoked by nature restoration, rewilding and the invocation of sustainable practices.

As with the climate crisis, this has created a widespread uproar among “little people”. Balancing between denial and anger, they lobby for their continued right to harvest and hunt, to uphold their free right of ways, and to inhabit nature with everything from musical festivals to huge sports events. In the bleak future where 30% of the globe is set aside for nature, they imagine being players in a kind of hunger games where only the well-situated, clever, and skilled people will survive – eating their pounder-burgers on the way – while the rest are left behind. As such they instinctively seem to know that there is a fundamental difference between the apocalypses imagined by the oppressed and the oppressors. For the former, they have already happened, while for the latter, they present a potentiality. While the former doom scroll, the latter prep themselves to weather the storm – or, alternatively, colonize Mars.

In this situation, the right wing of “Trumpist” European leaders have formulated a response to the ramifications of this particular apocalypse by voicing their fear for the future lack of food in a world where eight billion will grow to ten within the next 25 years. Currently, in Europe, political right-wing leaders have used the EU Nature Restoration Law to recruit European farmers to rebel in the streets of Brussels. Of course, this recruitment has been staged by the multi-corporal companies currently owning huge tracts of farms in Europe and living well off the subsidies paid out by the EU. As an example, the land in the former DDR Mecklenburg was farmed by cooperatives. After 1989, the workers on these cooperative farms were offered the opportunity to buy the land. Unfortunately, lacking funds, the land was taken over by large Western landowners. Today, 75% of the land is farmed in a highly industrialised fashion with a marginal rent per hectare but not per capital investment. This is a big business which would suffer significantly if the EU cut their CAP (the annual subsidies).

A careful examination of the challenges, however, shows that the future solution to this impending apocalypse – officially floated by the right-wing faction in the EU parliament – has already arrived. By harnessing futuristic tech – from vertical farming to stem cells, the technologies are already there. Yes, it demands a lot of clean energy and as yet a substantial technical innovative effort. Nevertheless, the possibility is there to free up significant tranches of land in Europe – and at the same time secure food for all. For instance, in Denmark, 15% of the land is farmed to produce fodder for cattle delivering milk to the dairy industry. This is more than 3000 times the amount of land needed to set up factories delivering the same amount of milk protein produced by yeast cells.

By literally looking at ONLY the apocalyptic discourse from below – and not how the professional doomsayers join up with the malcontents – we may miss the practical solutions to the fear and anger voiced by the people who seem to imagine the possibilities from a peasant perspective – framing their world as an “image of the limited good”, where the answer becomes one of providing more equity, more balance, and more respect through land-sharing. However, this will – emphatically – not solve the challenge of the impending and very real apocalypse called the Sixth Extinction. Looking at technical solutions, instead, it becomes possible to free up to 15-30% of land for nature restoration and rewilding while at the same time cleaning up the unhealthy system of subsidising a small handful of huge agricultural businesses. Suddenly a viable future of both restored ecosystems and room for other nature pursuits becomes possible.

However, this point of perspective does not surface without looking at the structure of the apocalypses wielded from both above and below. The trick is, as Davidson rightly writes, to unveil or reveal what apocalypses are about. However, we need to study the apocalypses voiced from both above and below to envision real solutions in a post-apocalyptic world. Neither, however, are defensible in their own right. The future calls for practical solutions to surmountable challenges. Not doom scrolling nor prepping.

Karen Schousboe

FEATURED PHOTO:

The Hunger Games is a series of young adult dystopian novels written by American author Suzanne Collins. The first three novels are part of a trilogy following teenage protagonist Katniss Everdeen, and the fourth book is a prequel set 64 years before the original.
The novels in the trilogy are titled The Hunger Games (2008), Catching Fire (2009), and Mockingjay (2010). Each was adapted for film, establishing The Hunger Games film series, with the film adaptation of Mockingjay split into two feature-length motion pictures. The first two books in the series were both New York Times best sellers, and Mockingjay topped all US bestseller lists upon its release. By the time the film adaptation of The Hunger Games was released in 2012, the publisher had reported over 26 million Hunger Games trilogy books in print, including movie tie-in books. © Murray Close

NOTES:

In anthropology, “limited good” is the theory commonly held in traditional societies that there is a limited amount of “good” to go around. In other words, the amount of land, money, etc. available is held to be finite, so every time one person profits, another loses.
Societies that subscribe to this philosophy tend to display strong levels of equality among members and to be strongly resistant to social change. The term was coined by George M. Foster in his 1965 article, Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good. Foster, George M. (1965) Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good, American Anthropologist New Series, Vol. 67, No. 2, Apr., pp. 293–315

SOURCE:

The Apocalypse from Below: The Dangerous Idea of the End of the World, the Politics of the Oppressed, and Anti-Anti-Apocalypticism
By Joe P. L. Davidson, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
In: Americal Political Science Review (2024) p. 1 – 13

Abstract

The apocalypse is frequently deployed by political movements, especially contemporary climate activists, to advance their causes. This article develops a framework for defending such invocations of the end of the world. With many other political theorists, I suggest that the apocalypse is a dangerous concept, not least because of its association with authoritarian accounts of history. However, we should not reject the apocalypse. I argue for a form of anti-anti-apocalypticism, using the criticisms directed against the concept as a launchpad to rethink it in viable terms. While acknowledging the value of different ways of defending the apocalypse, I highlight the importance of the causes of apocalyptic movements. Simply put, apocalypses from below are defensible because they have the capacity to clarify the political position of the oppressed and open new political possibilities for the group. By contrast, apocalypses from above, because they fail to fulfill these functions, are not.

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2024

MARCH

In France, the all civil servants will have to undergo training on climate, biodiversity, and natural resources issues.

The aim of this unique and ambitious initiative is to engage as many state stakeholders and practioners as possible, by raising their awareness and knowledge about both environmental risks and challenges to be faced, in order to initiate an effective, societal-scale transition that has to be collective, collaborative and systemic by essence. The ongoing inter-ministerial initiative is steered at national level by an interdisciplinary group of scientists who are responsible for framing training content and methods. The ambition is to guiding 5,7 mio. civil servants through the courses by 2027. The first results will be presented at the upcoming EGU Assembly in Vienna 14-19 April 2024

As the political biodiversity push falters, legal enforcement continues

Last week (13 March) the European Commission published its latest list of infringement proceedings against Member States. Most of the alleged failures to implement EU environmental law concern the bloc’s biodiversity rules.
At a time when the aims of the Green Deal are facing a backlash from the European right, some political leaders, and farmers, the Commission is moving against Germany, Slovenia, Ireland, Cyprus, and Bulgaria for alleged failures to comply with European environmental law.
The infringement procedure has four stages. In the first stage, the Commission requests more information from the country concerned. If the EU executive, is not satisfied with the country’s explanation, it sends a formal request to comply with the specific EU law.

The post News from Around Europe appeared first on Wilder Europe.

The return of a spectacular wild fauna and flora at Chernobyl has for a long time acted as one of the paradigmatic showcases for the resilience of nature, when people have to leave overnight following a catastrophe. Today, wolves, wild horses, and bison roam the former villages together with a group of Danish cattle, which had just been imported to a farm before the explosion took place. Today the herd of cattle has gone native and thrives with its feral living conditions. As does the rest of the fauna and flora.

Albeit the wanton destruction of the the Kakhovske Reservoir in June 2023 was a similar tragic and catastrophic event, also this is rapidly turning into a situation which may in time come with a natural bonus, writes Ukrainian scientists.

The reservoir was a dam with a surface area of 2155 km2 on the river Dnieper, which the retreating Russian forces blew up in June 2023. At the time, the event was considered a ecological catastrophe.

However, it now appears that the destruction has led to a fast and fascinating spontaneous restoration of semi-natural ecosystems. New research by Ukrainian scientists, Yuliia Spinova and Vasyliuk Oleksii, has shown an almost immediate recovery of native vegetation. By the end of the year, this recovery led to the natural young forest appearing on a large area freed from the artificial reservoir. Currently, the event is bringing about a restoration of more than 1,800 km² of natural ecosystems of which more than half will be forested. Such a large ecosystem restoration can become a decisive Ukrainian contribution to the European Union ecosystems revival by 2030, claim the scientists involved in monitoring the natural processes. This development is furthered by the Ukrainian government which a few weeks back banned any settlement in the area of the reservoir for other purposes than the reconstruction of the dam. Before that happens, nature will surely have taken over, and thus the question is, whether it will ever be reclaimed by anything but nature?

These processes mirror what is happening elsewhere in the occupied warzones, which people have left. It is calculated that about one million ha are mined to the extent that any cleaning-up of the injured and degraded land will be impossible. Especially since mines rapidly will be buried beneath the roots of shrubbery, trees and vegetation, making a recovery in time will be nearly impossible before the roots “hide” the explosives for good. Currently, the estimate is that the warzone will be inhabitable for at least 70 years.

Thus, spontaneous ecosystem restoration can become a powerful contribution of Ukraine into state tasks on preservation of degraded lands, as well as international obligations in the field struggle from climate change, Spinova and Vasyliuk argue.

SOURCE:

The results of their research is to be presented at the EGEU general Assembly 2024 in Vienna (Se: Spinova, Y. and Vasyliuk, O.: Post-war rewilding as a decision-making influence-factor, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-21661,

FEATURED PHOTO:

The Kakhovske Reservoir after the destruction. Source: Glavcom.ua/Open Source

l

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Rewilding is all about setting nature free to further its own natural processes by reintroducing lost species, setting the hydrology free, and bringing back habitats, tells Rewilding Britain. While the science is clear, some farming communities are hesitant pointing out that it does not make sense to take land away from agricultural production. Experience shows, however, that local economy flourishes as rewilding produce free range food of high quality and at premium prices, crates jobs and boost local ecotourism. Basic food production should not take up as much land as hitherto. Instead, agritech, should take over, claims rewilder enthusiasts.

Accordingly, supporters are pleased that rewilding plays an official role in the British Government’s policy to reform farming subsidies making room for large-scale projects which might include rewilding. Also, the new policy requiring entrepreneurs to enhance the biodiversity on their building projects with 10% or pay a premium for local or national projects will involve rewilding projects carried out on more marginal lands.

A snapshot of 58 rewilded sites, show that one quarter are carried out as large projects, while the remaining three quarters are on public land often taking the character of community project and engaging local people in bettering their natural surroundings.

Large projects included the Knepp Estate.  Another large project in the north is Wilder Doddington at the Elizabethan manor Doddington Estate with more than 250.000 visitors enjoying glamping or shopping at the cafes. Launched as a 400-year project, the plan is to letting nature recover while letting people connect to nature and the sturdy Lincoln Red Cattle and the Hungarian Mangalitza pigs (so-called Wollen Pigs) which are charged with the mission to further the natural ecosystems.

However, Rewilding Britain is not just working on dry land. New important projects include the creation of the “Arran Seabed Trust”, establishing the first no-take zone in Lamlash Bay on the West Coast of Scotland. Another recent project supported by Rewilding Britain is the creation of a healthy marine ecosystem at Sussex Bay, an extensive seascape that encompasses 160 km. The project aims to restore kelp beds, oyster beds and saltmarsh and bringing together scientists and too local groups along the shore. The project links up to the Weald to Waves project aiming to connect the ancient High Weald landscape with the coast.

FEATURED PHOTO:

Isobel Wright, Graham Warnes and Luca Mao at Wilder Duddington © Duddington Estate

READ MORE:

Rewilding Britain

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Wilderness is an increasingly rare landscape resource characterized by the IUCN as “protected areas that are usually large, unmodified, or slightly modified, retaining their natural character and influence, without permanent or significant human habitation, and are protected and managed to preserve their natural condition.”Retaining Wilderness Areas” is therefore listed at the top of its 21 action-oriented targets for 2030 in the Convention for Biological Diversity.

Unfortunately, not much true wilderness can be found in present-day Europe. However, Iceland still possesses large tracts of rugged wilderness.

In this realm, glaciers and ice caps intertwine, while vast sandunes and gravel plains stretch into hills and rugged mountains with their peaks reaching for the heavens. Between them rivers are fed by ancient glaciers, while hot springs  breathe life into the land cut through by gorges and valleys. Once forested, the cover is mainly grass and herbs in summertime.

Unfortunately, the protection is precarious, especially due to threats from renewable energy exploitation that encroach upon Iceland’s unique treasure. Other threats consist of tourism overflow and off-roading in wintertime. “Winter driving off-road over snow and ice remains an issue that requires further attention,” writes Carver and his research team.

Recently, this group of scientists posted a new method to map the icelandic wilderness to secure it from further encroachment, or at least to prevent entrepreneurial activities from being undertaken without public consultations.

This new approach to mapping wilderness is based on internationally recognized methods and customized to suit the unique nature of Icelandic landscapes. The scientists have used spatially explicit models of wilderness attributes that measure human impact from vehicular access, land use, and visible human features, rather than relying on proxy measures such as buffer zones. Seventeen wilderness areas are identified across the Central Highlands and surrounding areas, totaling some 28,470 km2. These are then compared to existing mapping projects, including the EU Wilderness Index.

The character of these areas is described using additional spatial data models on openness, ruggedness, and accessibility from settlements, along with information on mobile phone coverage and grazing patterns.

This is the most detailed mapping of wilderness in Iceland to date and represents an important step towards the formal definition of boundaries for wilderness areas meeting IUCN Category 1b and the Wild Europe Working Definition in Iceland.

Tourism – A Dilemma

Icelandic wilderness is a highly marketed tourism product, intended to offer “primitive” forms of recreation, opportunities to experience solitude, and a chance to find freedom away from the constraints of urban living. In 2004, a study was carried out in Iceland’s Landmannalaugar Wilderness based on 550 questionnaires and 12 in-depth interviews. While satisfaction was high and most tourists experienced the area as “unspoiled” wilderness, they also sought good basic services and infrastructure. In 2004, 20% considered the place overrun. This figure had grown to 33% in 2009.

One such dilemma occurred at Landmannlaugur Wilderness, where there used to be a path between the main center and the local hot spring. Tourists used to have the extra sensory experience of walking through the wetland to the spring. However, twenty years ago, the plants gave way, and the caretakers capitulated, installing a bridge. During the last decades, the number of tourists – and hence impact – on the wilderness has grown.

Cultural and Natural Heritage in the Wilderness

Landmannalaugar is a convenient stepping stone for nature tourists on the way to Vatnajökull. Before reaching the daring gletchers though, a visit to Þjóðveldisbærinn, the so-called Commonwealth Farm is recommended. A reconstructed farm based on the Stöng Farm, the medieval predecessor is believed to have been abandoned after the Hekla eruption in 1104.

The farm opens up into the central hall giving access to the sitting room, the store rooms and the bathrooms. Next to the farm is a reconstruction of the small church, which was excavated in the 80s. Stöngs farm figures in the now lost Gaukur’s saga. Visitors are invited to “see” the Iceland World through the preserved. Gaukur Trandilsson, is reported to have been an exceptionally gentle and brave man and fosterbrother to Asgrimur, who ended up killing him. Gaukur is also mentioned in Njál’s Saga and Íslendingadrápa, and a Runic inscription on the orkeney islands, which read: “These runes were carved by the man who was the most knowledgeable of runes in the west of the sea, using the axe that belonged to Gaukur Trandilsson in the south of the land”. Part of Games of Thrones was filmed at the farm and in the wilderness further inland towards the real wilderness of Iceland, the Vatnajökull.

SOURCES:

New Approaches to Modelling Wilderness Quality in Iceland
By Steve Carver, Sif Konrádsdóttir, Snæbjörn Guðmundsson, Ben Carver and Oliver Kenyon
In: Land (2023) Vol. 12 Issue 2,

Adapting to Change: Maintaining a Wilderness Experience in a Popular Tourist Destination
By Anna Dora Saethorsdottir
In: Tourism Today (2004) No 4, pp. 52-65

Managing popularity: Changes in tourist attitudes in a wilderness destination
Dóra Sæþórsdóttir
In: Tourism Management Perspectives (2013) Vol 7, pp 47-58

The Representation of Icelandic Medieval Heritage in Tourism
By Mariko Komaru
Thesis: Faculty of Life and Environmental Science. University of Iceland. 2021

The post Wilderness in Iceland? appeared first on Wilder Europe.

After WW2, the green revolution paved the way for making Europe self-sufficient regarding food. Helped by the EU, this industrialisation increased global production by introducing high-yielding varieties and streamlined animal production systems. Though highly efficient, the shift also caused widespread deterioration of biodiversity, degrading soils, lowering the groundwater tables, increasing salinisation and deforestation, and introducing a regime of pesticides. Further, widespread rural inequalities lead to migration out of the countryside and, in the last decades, widespread abandonment of marginal lands. The disappearance of traditional knowledge of agricultural systems, such as in the transhumance in the Mediterranean and the bocage systems in France, should be added to this list. Although not all agricultural landscapes today look like Mecklenburg in Northern Germany with its vast agro-industrial landscapes featuring fields up to 100 ha, or the “Zone Agroindustrielle” east of Paris, the devastation of the cultural landscapes has been widespread.

This development has also been the case in Spain. Nevertheless, the Iberian peninsula is still home to five of the EU’s seven internationally recognised “Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems”, so-called GIAHS, a system set up by FAO in 2002. The Iberian Peninsula was recently surveyed with the GIAHS model to recognise further agroecosystems worth preserving as intangible heritage. The criteria are food and livelihood security, agro-biodiversity, local and traditional knowledge systems, distinctive cultural values, and specific features of landscapes and seascapes. By developing these criteria and utilising GIS, the Spanish authorities have pinpointed fifty potential sites worth protecting.

Significant are the sites belonging to 56% of the farmland in Spain known as “dehesas” (and in Portugal as “montados”). Half of this typical landscape in the southwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula is found in the northern part of Andalusia in the Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche stretching north of the Guadalquivir from Huelva, Seville, Cordoba, and Baeza. Originally covered by woods hosting gall, cork and holm oaks, this landscape was cleared to make way for the dehesas. As well as grazing livestock, mostly cows and fighting bulls, the dehesas – or defences, originally meaning a reserved pasture – were and are used for the production of cork, firewood, and charcoal, as well as grazing. Some of the villages flanking the dehesas date back to prehistoric times, while others owe their existence to the out-migration of the Muslim population after the Reconquista and the slow Castilian repopulation. Most villages grew up around fortress-like churches or hilltop castles constructed to deter the Portuguese to the west and the Nasrid kingdom at Grenada to the east.

As it stands today, the dehesa-landscape was the immediate result of the Castillian conquest, when the Muslim population gradually migrated from leaving an abandoned landscape where natural ecosystems were allowed to take over. For a short while, much of the the landscape was used for activities such as hunting, fishing, and beekeeping. Only gradually did the exploitation of the landscape characterised by “modern” dehesas – that is, enclosed pasturelands – take over after the final conquest of the Nasrid kingdom and the population growth following the wars and plagues, which marred the 14th and 15th centuries.

Although it is believed the system with dehesas existed in Roman, Byzantine and later Islamic times, the present-day version thus dates to the period of repopulation, which occurred in the later Middle Ages. Their main function was to serve as more or less common, more or less privately owned pastures for drought cattle. One common feature was the active prohibition against pigs and poultry accused of uprooting the ground and fouling the water. However, the dehesas were not just used for drought cattle. Sometimes, dehesas were enclosed and used for regular cattle ranging by larger landowners and the cities located along the Guadalquivir.

Today, these dehesas are recognised by the EU as farmlands with a “High Natural and Cultural Value”, implying these agroforestry systems also score high on biodiversity. Protected as a specific EU habitat, much of the landscape featuring the dehesas is recognised as Natura 2000.

Two Forms of Conservation Policies

However, the question remains how to preserve this unique cultural landscape and/or its nature best? And further: is it worth protecting the dehesa-landscape from a biodiversity perspective?

One system set up by the Spanish authorities is the identification of the belt as a network of Protected Natural Areas, parts of which – as said – have also been designated Natura 2000. However, this system is challenged by the abandonment by people of the traditional sylva–pastoral landscape, with an accompanying shift from pigs to poultry, horses, and olive groves, but also furthering the encroaching scrub and forest.

Another option, though, is inducing forest expansion together with more or less active rewilding, returning to the “Reconquista” landscape with its natural barriers of Mediterranean wild forests used as open nature reserves and hunting grounds. This is, to some degree, the policy adopted by the National Parks spread along the Northern border of Andalusia. Apparently, these parks struggle to integrate the abandoned farmland into their natural range without losing the distinctive fauna and flora characteristic of the dehesas.

These two policies and options have been claimed to represent two adverse methods of conservation where the cultural and natural landscapes are set apart and not allowed to mingle, thus establishing what in the literature has been termed a “cultural severance”.

“The progressive degradation and marginalisation of the rural landscape and the associated deterioration of environmental and social conditions are factors correlated with the increasing land abandonment of smallholder farming over the past decades”, writes Villodre et al. in a recent article (Villodre 2023)”, on behalf of the cultural-landscape-faction. They posit that “among the main arguments against rewilding are the loss of valuable cultural landscapes and high nature value farming systems, the decrease in landscape heterogeneity or the negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem Services”. In a project led by the University of Extremadura and carried out together with stakeholders, plans have been laid to enrich the grassland of the dehesas by bettering the regeneration of trees and the sowing of fodder crops.

Opposed to this, the Nature-landscape-faction argues for a type of (passive) rewilding, letting the abandoned details being swallowed by the wilder natural landscape dominating the sierras.

One example of such a more integrated landscape is the UNESCO Global Geopark – the Sierra Norte de Sevilla Natural Park – characterised by rich and diversified nature. This is a landscape of gently rolling hills clad in dense evergreen oaks, which covers 177.000 ha and is very sparsely populated. However, a third of the park is still taken up with dehesas, where pigs continue to graze. Thus, the dehesas borders a rich landscape of wilder nature inhabited by boars, deer, otters, badgers, wolves, polecats, and wild cats, while overflown with eagles, griffons, black vultures, black storks, red kites, and eagle owls. Also, the landscape is teeming with a significant population of endangered butterflies. Thus, in a situation where the wild nature of Europe is endangered, the preservation of large tracts of abandoned dehesas should seem an unnecessary luxury. When all is said and done, a dehesa is an enclosed pasture more or less extensively exploited for grazing and coppice. The upholding of a dehesa, thus, does not depend on the next-door neighbouring dehesas. As opposed to this, wild nature needs large tracts of undisturbed land where animals and plants can roam. Why, then, should we preserve and protect the dehesas?

Arguably, however, the dehesas sustain high levels of biodiversity if kept under an adequate management regime. This is the main conclusion of a meta-survey carried out in 2022 (Rodríguez-Rojo 2022). In general, the dehesas, with their intermediate tree covers, scrub patches, and natural microclimates, offer a varied and beneficial home to a wide variety of species thriving in a mosaic landscape. However, if the management becomes too proactive – for instance, removing dead tree stumps and clearing shrubs, the advantages tend to disappear. “Small-scale features and natural microhabitats such as traditional stone walls, canopy shrubs, piles of pruning debris, or temporary watercourses have been shown to contribute substantially to the biodiversity of macroinvertebrates, reptiles, and small mammals, writes Rodríguez-Rojo et al. (2022)

On a more detailed level, other studies of the dehesas considered as low-input farming agroforestry systems have shown that, taken as a whole, the dehesas do feature significant numbers of species and rich biodiversity. However, systematically measuring flora and fauna on nine general habitat categories inside dehesas from wood pastures to water bodies, it was shown that abundance and species richness varied widely and that the proportion of shared species was low among the different micro-habitats. The most important conclusion was that the high diversity of the dehesas depended on the coexistence within the farms of habitats, which, although marginal, seemed to harbour a disproportionally high number of species compared to the small areas out of the whole which they occupied. This might mean that it is, in fact, not the dehesas as such, but rather the wilder fringes which support their value as natural reserves. (Moreno et al. 2016). In short: heterogeneity seems to be the key to the high biodiversity attached to the dehesas.

Another study has also demonstrated this conclusion carried out in 2020 when a group of scientists published an index on how to evaluate threatened biodiversity (Diaz 2020). Lucky for us, they applied their model to the forests of Andalusia comprising the following habitats: Oak forests, other forests, shrubland, grassland and dehesas. The method employed consisted of selecting threatened species according to the official regional red list and evaluating their status according to a weighted index of differences in threat status, sensitivity to disturbance, and their functional role. The final list included 224 species: 81 plants, 76 birds, 31 mammals, 22 anthropods, six reptiles, five amphibians, and three molluscs. Fine-scale maps covering 43,864 km2 were then plotted with the biodiversity index calculated for each threatened species registered. Based on this, the scientists found that the dehesas averaged a conservation value of only 80-150. Albeit more than the oak forest (40-100) and the other forests (50-110), the best results were found in shrubland and grassland bordering the dehesas and yielding 200-250.

From Passive to Active Rewilding

Pondering the diverse habitats– dehesas, grasslands, shrublands and forests –  it appears they each contribute and have a role to play. However, the quality of biodiversity seems to be attached less to the different habitats and rather the mixture of the different intermingling zones in the sierras – with wilder nature in the inner hills and mountains bordered by semi-open shrub- and grassland, which in their turn is adjoined by the dehesas and the traditional silvopastoral farms on the gently sloping countryside reaching down to the banks of the river and its tributaries. To name one example, the griffon vultures are best served in a semi-open landscape filled with carrion from both wild deer and livestock, while reforestation or monocultures like olive groves hinder their survival in the sierras.

Perhaps, the real solution is to accept that returning to an actively rewilded landscape might solve the problem. What we do know is that the forestry landscape of the sierras in the Southwestern Iberian Peninsula before the neolithic revolution consisted of the fluctuating landscape where wild roaming animals – aurochs, wild horses, boars and numerous top predators such as lions, wolves, bears and lynx roamed the terrain, slowly opening up the woodland to turn it into a semi-open grassland much like the traditional dehesas looked like before they were fenced in, and claimed as private property.

However, advancing active rewilding will involve the traditional Spanish farmers abandoning their role as custodians of the cultural landscape of their dehesas, agroforestry farms, and famed products. On the other hand, though, they may gain a new and less stressful role as custodians of the wild nature currently reclaiming the sierras of Southern Spain.

Unfortunately, as long as agribusinesses and lobbyists support the discourse on cultural landscapes as part of the national heritage, this may not happen, despite the vested interests in nature tourism and the economics of climate adaptation, which should lead the way.

SOURCES:

Prioritising conservation actions towards the sustainability of the dehesa by integrating the demands of society
By Carlos Parra-López, Samir Sayadi, Guillermo Garcia-Garcia, Saker Ben Abdallah, and Carmen Carmona-Torres
In: Agricultural Systems (2023), Vol 206.

Characterization of potential Spanish territories for creating a national network associated with the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems
By Cintya Elizabeth Manrique Anticona, Jos´é Luis Yagüe Blanco, and Isabel Cristina Pascual Castano.
In: Land Use Policy (2023) vol 131.

Origin, Typology and Evolution of the Dehesas in the south of the Iberian Peninsula during the Late Middle Ages (13th to 15th Centuries AD)
By Maria Antonia Carmona Ruiz
In: Landscapes and Resources in the Bronze Age of Southern Spain. RessourcenKulturen(2022) vol 17 (pp. 135-144.

Exploring the causes of high biodiversity of Iberian dehesas: the importance of wood pastures and marginal habitats
By Gerardo Moreno, Guillermo Gonzalez-Bornay, Fernando Pulido, María Lourdes Lopez-Diaz, Manuel Bertomeu, Enrique Juárez & Mario Diaz
In: Agroforestry Systems (2016) vol 90, pp 87-105

Which Factors Favour Biodiversity in Iberian Dehesas?
by Maria Pilar Rodríguez-Rojo, Sonia Roig, Celia López-Carrasco, María Manuela Redondo García, and Daniel Sánchez-Mata
In: Sustainability (2022) Vol 14 no 4

Abandonment and management in Spanish dehesa systems: Effects on soil features and plant species richness and composition
By Reyes Tárrega, Leonor Calvo, Ángela Taboada, Sergio García-Tejero, and Elena Marcos
In: Forest Ecology and Management (2009) 257(2):731-738

The perception of tourism sustainability by stakeholders. The case study of the “Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche” Nature Park, “Sierra Norte de Sevilla” Nature Park and “Sierra de Hornachuelos” Nature Park (Andalusia, Spain)
By María Bahamonde-Rodríguez, F. Javier García-Delgado, and Giedrė Šadeikaitė
In: Land( 2022), vol 11

Land use and land cover dynamics in the dehesa of Sierra Morena Biosphere Reserve (Sierra Norte de Sevilla Natural Park, Spain), 1956-2007
By Juan Manuel Mancilla-Leytón, Antonio Puerto-Marchena and Ángel Martín-Vicente
In: Madera bosques (2017) vol.23 no.2

A comprehensive index for threatened biodiversity valuation
By Mario Díaz, Elena D. Concepción, José L. Oviedo, Alejandro Caparrós, Begoña Á. Farizo, and Pablo Campos
In: Ecological Indicators (2020) Vol 108

Willingness to accept for rewilding farmland in environmentally sensitive areas
By Rubén Granado-Díaz, Anastasio J. Villanueva, and José A. Gómez-Limón
In: Land Use Policy (2022) Vol 116

The post Rewilding or Landscape Conservation in Andalusia? appeared first on Wilder Europe.

The fierce and shy wild cattle living in the park at Chillingham is but one flock of four roaming at Woburn, Dynevor, and Cadzow. Earlier on, such herds were a common feature in the British landscape, probably kept for their ornamental and symbolic value. Known in the 12th century as Tauri Sylvestres, they have apparently always been considered a wild sub-species. The herd at Chillingham, though, was first mentioned in 1645. Today, about 130 animals live in the 150-ha large park in Northumberland. The herd is protected from being earmarked, a true sign of their “wild” status.

These flocks of wild cattle were treated as a kind of super-deer eaten on festive occasions, such as at the Archbishop of York installation feast in 1466. At the celebrations, six wild bulls were roasted and served. It appears the white cattle survived as potent medieval status symbols alongside other wild species. Evidence from Auckland Castle indicates a herd of White Cattle was kept in the 15th-century deer park for ornamental reasons together with wild horses.

From Wales, we know that white cattle were used as a coin to measure fines payable to the Lords of Dynevar. In AD 1210, a Welsh Marcher lord tried to bribe King John with a White bull and four hundred cows.

It is usually supposed that the wild cattle living in the parks are descended from free-living cattle, which is otherwise well documented. Thus  we lear from Fits-Stephens description of London from 1174 (from his biography of Thomas Becket) how there to the North were “tilled fields, pastures, and pleasant, level meadows with streams flowing through them”. Not far off spread “out a vast forest, its copses dense with foliage concealing wild animals – stags, does, boars, and wild bulls.”.

However, from medieval reports we also know that herds of cattle were regularly moved from one deer park to another. In 1277 Edward I specifically ordered wild cows and bulls to be taken to Windsor Forest. Whether or not elaborate hunts were staged at the deer parks remains unknown.

Recent studies of the genetics

One of the distinguishing features of this subspecies of cattle appears to be its white coat. Studies of their DNA have shown that the colour reflects a chromosomal homozygous translocation which also causes testicular hypoplasia. Also present in the white Galloway and the Irish Moiled, it is also found in the Northern Finncattle and the Swedish Mountain breed. It has been suggested that the cattle were initially imported to The British Isles in the maelstrom of the Viking conquests.

Just as two breeds of sheep in Northwest England as well as horses and dogs have been identified as having Scandinavian roots, the scientists reporting on the genetic makeup of the Chillingham herd suggest an affinity. This, however, remains to be confirmed by further studies of the ancient Scandinavian cattle breeds.

How did the herds survive?

The survival of these herds is remarkable as the hypoplasia caused by the genetic makeup has another consequence. Accompanied by a reduced testicular functionality is poor sperm quality, which should have led to the extinction of the white herds centuries ago.

However, studies of the breeding patterns of the herds show that the Chillingham cattle breed all season, competition between the bulls is fierce, and oestrous cows are repeatedly mounted. Thus, in a study between June 1980 and December 1981, the biologists and rangers noted how 15 to 17 mature bulls carried out 71 mountings within a fortnight leading to 22 calves nine months later. Paternity to these calves could not be ascertained. Thus, the animals appear to have found a way to compensate for the genetic deficiency. It should be noted that reproductive performance is a key indicator of the long-term sustainability of any livestock production system, and that testicular hypoplasia is a morphological and functional reproductive disorder that affects bulls around the world, which might lead to aggressive breeding patterns among some semi-feral herds (for instance at Mols Lab in 2022). The incident was later villified by a group of animal activists deploring “the rape of the cows” and led to the deplorable culling of the young bulls punished for their apparently genetically sound pattern of breeding, develop to compensate for this particular genetic challenge.

This insight has significant consequences for the upkeep of this (and other herds) of these rare, semi-feral types of cattle. It would be wrong to believe that artificial fertilisation would be able to save a subspecies like the famous white cattle. Quite the opposite.

SOURCE:

Conservation of rare wild-living cattle Bos taurus (L.): coat colour gene illuminates breed history, and associated reproductive anomalies have not reduced herd fertility
S. J. G. Hall, B. Brenig, R. A. Ashdown, M. R. Curry
First published: 02 September 2021 in Journal of Zoology (2021) Vol 315, issue 4.

Aspects of archaeology, history, landscape, material culture and structures of bishop’s houses in the English dioceses of Carlisle and Durham, and the Scots dioceses of Glasgow and St. Andrews c1450-1660.
By C.E.H. Smith
Thesis, Durham 2020.

Wild White Cattle of Great Britain
By Hellidon John Storer
London 1879

Race, Breed, and Myths of Origin: Chillingham Cattle as Ancient Britons
By Harriet Ritvo
In: Representations (1992), Vol 39 pp 1 – 22

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VISIT:

It is possible to go on a guided tour of the park during the summer.
Joint Cattle and Castle tickets are available via the Wild Cattle website. Numbers on the Wild Cattle tours are restricted, so it is best if you book on line so as to avoid any possible disappointment. Visit www.chillinghamwildcattle.com for more information.

Also, the 12th-century Castle of Chillingham offers tours during the summer as well as stays in the self-catering aprtments in the Coaching Rooms. Unfortunately, no pets are allowed.

The post Wild Cattle in Britain – Descendants of Viking Cattle? appeared first on Wilder Europe.

In 2050 the world is expected to be carbon neutral. However, this technical effort is insufficient to keep temperatures from overstepping 1.5 °C. We also need to find ways to sequester vast amounts of the carbon emitted in the last 250 years. Hence, the UN also calls for removing an additional 500-1000 Gt of atmospheric CO2 already let loose and storing it on the planet between now and 2100 (equivalent to 7-14 Gt CO2 per year). To put this in perspective, the world’s forests already sequester 7.6 Gt per year. The need and obligation to enhance our current level of sequestration mean that we might have to double up the capacity of our forests.

One way to achieve this goal is by doubling the area of forests, meadows and extensive grasslands as of now! Another is to “animate the carbon cycle” and harvest an additional sequestration of an average of 6.5 Gt C worldwide.

While turning carbon neutral takes time and costs CO2 on the way when building windmill parks or nuclear installations, the beauty of the forest solution is that it might be orchestrated overnight. We just have to stop using considerable tracts to grow feed for animals and instead rewild them. Simply put,  we may just set the action in motion by planting mixed forests, reclaiming the waterways, and letting large herbivores loose.

The Case for EU

In the EU, one opportunity is offered by the widespread agricultural abandonment suffered on marginal lands and a proposed shift towards wildlife ranching. In the EU 2020, 40 % of the total land is actively managed by farmers. To this should be added 15%, which is already either not worked or entirely abandoned. Furthermore, an additional 3 % of the total agricultural land in the EU is projected to be abandoned before 2030, adding 10 to 20 mill ha to this pool. As much of this land is farmed to feed animals, the only consequence will be the need to shift the European diet from north to south towards a more wholesome Mediterranean version (more vegetables and less meat).

Rewilding Mediterranean Rangelands

Much of this abandoned farmland lies in Southern and Eastern Europe (with Spain expected to suffer the most due to climate changes and desertification).

Although large wild herbivores and carnivores were traditionally abundant in the Mediterranean landscapes, the Roman Empire led to a near-complete extermination opening up for domesticated livestock to fill the niche in most of Western Europe. Until the dissolution of the fascist regimes in Spain and Portugal, these more traditional agricultural systems continued to favour extensive forms of pastoral production, including the care for extensive and semi-feral livestock, such as the large flocks of wild horses in Galicia and Northern Portugal, which used to roam there. Also, transhumance had a role to play in terms of biodiversity, disseminating seeds across vast stretches of land and regions . However, after entering the EU, large-scale industrialised farming was furthered, leading to the abandonment of more marginal lands, thus emptying the landscapes of animals and people. One consequence has been the more widespread and intense wildfires releasing copious amounts of carbon as well as causing severe losses of human lives and property.

What is needed?

• A courageous new policy adopting an active trophic rewilding policy
• A new ethos regarding nature conservation – from protection to ecosystem restoration
• An increased supply of animals – the need to develop ambitious and international breeding programmes of “pools” of wild animals stemming from free-range flocks
• Reorientation of subsidies from production to ecosystem restoration

The Return of the Ice Age?

One of the questions raised by the rewilding movement is whether this paradigm implies a return to long-bygone landscapes or whether the project is future-oriented. Without a doubt, the latter is the case as rewilding foremost works to reconstitute and reconstruct robust self-regulating ecosystems where nature and the remains of our threatened biodiversity may once more flourish.

However, the question is not mute. We shall never return to any world that was. Nevertheless, we may still use history to inspire us to imagine what kind of landscapes we might encounter in the future, if rewilding became a dominant and preferred paradigm – as should be the case because of its climatic advantages. Might it be a version of the Pleistocene landscape before, during, and immediately after the Last Ice Age? Or – as is it more likely – might a version of the Early Medieval Landscape be the next vision forEuropean Nature?

To ponder this question, we must explore some aspects of what took place in nature and landscape during and after the Roman Empire.

A Return of the Early Medieval Landscape?

“There is a third kind, consisting of animals called URI. These are a little below the elephant’s in size and have the appearance, colour, and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied. With much effort, the Germans hound them into pits and kill them. The young men harden themselves with this exercise and practice this kind of hunting. Those who have slain the greatest number of them and can produce their horns publicly to serve as evidence receive great praise. But not even when taken very young can the animals be rendered familiar to men and tamed. The size, shape, and appearance of their horns differ much from the horns of our oxen. These they anxiously seek after, to bind the tips with silver that they may be used as cups at their most sumptuous entertainments. ”
(Caesar De Bello Gallico, chapter XXVIII)

The period of megafauna was undoubtedly the Pleistocene, which ended 11.700 years ago. It included aurochs, wild boars, giant deer, elephants and massive predators. This assembly of animals roamed the Mediterranean when food for herbivorous animals was widely available in the forests along coastlines and rivers whose estuaries, marshes and lagoons would serve as grazing for these large animals. Although extinction began long before the Roman Empire flourished, the Mediterranean forests’ destruction followed in the Roman Army’s footsteps with its insatiable need for energy, metal, building resources, timber for shipbuilding, animals for entertainment and leather for shoes. In this connection, hides from the “Urus” – the auroch – were especially sought after. Thus, a riot broke out among the Frisians, who were obliged to pay their taxes in hides, when the Roman governor in AD 28 suddenly demanded hides from aurochses. The Frisians, who could not meet these demands, suffered forced requisitions of cattle, confiscations of land and enslavement of the families of defaulters, which eventually led to rebellion an mass slaughter.

Thus, judging by Caesar, the Romans not only demanded their hides as tribute, they also tried to domesticate the aurochses. And even though Caesar denied the feasibility, we may judge by the size of Roman cattle that they probably succeeded again and again in mingling domesticated cattle with the grand wild beasts roaming the ancient landscape.

However, these breeding programs fell apart after the Fall of the Roman Empire, leaving the Early Medieval People in a wilder landscape with their small and insignificant animals. At the same time, the diminished flocks of aurochses retreated to the peripheries of Eastern Europe to become extinct as a distinct wild variety in the 16th – 18th century. We do know, however, that more or less semi-feral cattle and horses continued to roam the landscapes. (Hence, it never involved much ingenuity to back breed a passable version of the aurochs as part of the so-called Taurus Project).

To sum up, most European peasants in the Early Middle Ages moved through a vastly different and much more animated landscape than ours, in which wild horses and aurochses mingled freely with semi-feral flocks of cattle and horses. Once again, Europe was home to a much more extensive pastoral economy. Granted, the large areas of the loess landscape in present-day Eastern France and Western Germany continued to be farmed intensively. Incidentally, this landscape became the core of the Carolingian world and the recreation of the West Roman Empire in 800, when Charlemagne was crowned in Rome. However, the traditional pre-Roman agricultural system was once again dominant on the peripheries. 

How should we imagine this landscape? At its core was one or more independent semi-pastoral peasant holdings consisting of intensively cultivated fields near the farm, surrounded by more or less extensively used pastoral grounds – meadows, grazing forests and more remote wildernesses. We know, this landscape came about in the sixth century following tumultuous climatic and political upheavals, widespread cooling in the north and the devastation caused by the Justinian plague. And we know the next four to five hundred years gave the European nature and landscape a much-needed breathing space following the intense overexploitation caused by the Roman Imperial army and administration. 

Perhaps, we might be inspired by these events?

Karen Schousboe

SELECTED SOURCES

Abandoned Farmland: Past Failures or future opportunities for Europe’s Green Deal? A Baltic case-study
By Kristine Valujeva, Mariana Debernardini, Elizabeth K. Freed, Aleksejs Nipers, and Rogier P.O. Schulte
In: Environmental Science & Policy (2022) Vol 128, pp 175-184

Addressing challenges for large-scale trophic rewilding
By Deli Saavedra, Néstor Fernández, and Jens-Christian Svenning
In: Journal for Nature Conservation (2023) Vol 73, 26382, p. 2)

Animating the Carbon Cycle: How Wildlife Conservation Can Be a Key to Mitigate Climate Change
Oswald J. Schmitz and Magnus Sylvén
In: Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development (2023) Vol 65, No 3, pp 5-17

Dynamics of rural landscapes in Marginal Areas of Northern Spain: Past, Present, and Future
José Antonio González Díaz, Rafael Celaya, Felipe Fernández García, Koldo Osoro, Rocío Rosa García
In: Land Degradation and Development.
(2019) Volume 30, Issue2, pp. 141-150

Grasslands and scrublands in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula: Silvopastoral systems and nature conservation
By Fransisco Javier Silva-Pando, Maria José Rozados Lorenzo & María Pilar González Hernández
In: Pasture Landscapes and Nature Conservation. By Bernd Redecker, Werner Härdtle, Peter Finck, Uwe Riecken, Eckhard Schröder
Springer Verlag 2002

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Ed. by P. R. Shukla et al.
Cambridge University Press, 2022.

New Perspectives on the Medieval ‘Agricultural Revolution’. Crop, Stock and Furrow.
By Helena Hamerow and Mark McKerracher
Liverpool University Press 2022
Open Access

Trade-offs between passive and trophic rewilding for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
By Andrew J. Tanentzap a, Georgia Daykin a 1, Thea Fennell a 1, Ella Hearne a 1, Matthew Wilkinson b, Peter D. Carey a, Ben A. Woodcock c, Matthew
In: Biological Conservation (2023) Vol 281

The post Rewilding – the Natural Climate Solution appeared first on Wilder Europe.

Landscapes and Environments of the Middle Ages
Michael Bintley and Kate Franklin
Routledge 2024

Popular representations of the Middle Ages tend to veer, sometimes wildly, between depicting medieval people as setting the foundations for the enslavement of the natural world or representing them as being deeply attuned to the rhythms and complexities of the environments they inhabited.

Inevitably, as this book aims to show, matters were much more complicated, and varied across time, space, society, gender, languages, and cultures to extents that are impossible to encapsulate in a soundbite. Thus, ather than studying ‘nature’ in the Middle Ages, the book instead examines the spaces that people constructed through soil, stone, and song; water and wasteland; plants and animals; and timber, textiles, and texts, which in turn made up the medieval world.

The new book considers some of the many landscapes and environments that medieval people and their cultures created, manipulated, and exploited to different extents, both in the physical realm and in the mind’s eye. These relationships between realms real and imagined, were complex and closely interrelated. The things people encountered in the physical world around them played a significant part in determining what they wrote about them in texts, and how they depicted them in other works of art.

Likewise, the text emphasises a definition of environment that focuses on ‘living with’, inviting readers to think about the more-than-human worlds that medieval people depended on, cared for, constructed, and damaged. Bringing together a wide range of primary source material, including evidence from texts, material culture, and visual arts, the book reflects the diversity of landscapes and human responses to them throughout the course of this period and considers the role that these medieval worlds have played in shaping the modern, both physically and culturally.

Landscapes and Environments of the Middle Ages is intended as a comprehensive introduction and resource for both undergraduate and postgraduate students in medieval studies and history, offering interdisciplinary, transhistorical, and transnational insights into this period of immense change and innovation.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Michael Bintley is Senior Lecturer in Early Medieval Literature and Culture at Birkbeck, University of London. He is author of Trees in the Religions of Early Medieval England (2015) and Settlements and Strongholds in Early Medieval England: Texts, Landscapes, and Material Culture (2020).

Kate Franklin is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at Birkbeck, University of London. She is Co-PI of the Vayots Dzor Silk Road Survey, a collaborative archaeological research project focused on the layered material worlds of Vayots Dzor, Armenia. Kate is author of Everyday Cosmopolitanisms: Living the Silk Road in Medieval Armenia (2021).

READ ALSO:

FURTHER READING

Medieval Landscapes – Two Points of View

The Frightening Landscape in Northern Europe in the Early Middle Ages

The Medieval Landscape as a Pastoral Christian Cosmos

The post Landscapes and Environments of the Middle Ages appeared first on Wilder Europe.