With a view to achieving the environmental objectives of the 2030 agenda, the European Union intends to expand the extent of protected natural territory on the continent to 30%, as well as restore damaged territories with potential for nature conservation. One of the options to achieve this is the rewilding of the territory, which seeks to regenerate natural ecosystems by reestablishing ecological functions and biodiversity, as well as limiting human pressure on the territory. In this context, researchers from the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC) and the University of Évora (Portugal) have developed a methodology to identify areas with renaturalization potential in Europe and that can support States in their efforts to expand the area of protected natural spaces that the continent aspires to have in this decade. The results of the work, which are published in the journal Current Biology, indicate that a quarter of Europe meets the criteria to apply renaturalization, either passive or active.
Passive renaturation is done through the management of natural processes, such as increasing ecological connectivity that allows the movement of species from populations with a demographic surplus to territories with deficient populations or even disappeared due to past local extinctions. For its part, the active form is carried out through the reintroduction of key species for the functioning of ecosystems, a proposal that has increased its popularity in both Europe and the United States.
“Approximately 117 million hectares, almost a quarter of the European continent, meet the criteria that we have determined to apply renaturalization strategies,” comments Miguel B. Araújo, researcher at the MNCN-CSIC. «Those selected are areas that meet requirements such as having large dimensions, being sparsely populated, having little impact from economic activity and having the presence of mammal species, both herbivorous and carnivorous, with relevance to the natural dynamics of ecosystems. », he continues.
«The study points out that 70% of these areas are located in the coldest areas of the continent – Scandinavia, Scotland, the Baltic States – but the Iberian Peninsula is also among the regions of Europe with the most potential for passive renaturation, where “Interesting results can be obtained just by managing territorial dynamics, such as the connectivity and dispersion of species, as well as the management of populations of key species for the functioning of ecosystems,” explains Diogo Alagador, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Évora.
Active renaturation
Active renaturation, which is based on the reintroduction of key animals, is particularly important when species of herbivores and carnivores essential for the functioning of ecosystems have disappeared from the food chain and when it is considered unlikely that they will be able to recolonize, in a reasonable time, these spaces through natural dispersion from nearby territories. The objective is that, thanks to the introduction of species, the system regulates itself, thus recovering the biodiversity and balance that it has lost. “Active renaturation could be applied in habitats in Croatia, Sardinia, the south of France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden or Norway,” Alagador points out.
«There are extensive European territories that are suffering processes of rural abandonment. Generally, they are territories with reduced primary productivities, which offer also reduced returns to the people who live there. The abandonment of these territories causes serious social problems, in addition to leading to an accumulation of biomass that increases the risk of fires. An alternative for these territories is active renaturalization,” says the CSIC researcher. This option implies the reestablishment of herbivore populations that replace domestic herbivores in the biomass control function.
«On the other hand, in sufficiently large areas, and where conflict with human populations can be managed more easily, there will be the possibility of the return of large carnivores, such as wolves or bears, which play an important role in managing populations of herbivores and in the formation of landscape mosaics that are, themselves, more resilient to high intensity fires. The replacement of rural management with natural management – more focused on recovering habitats with low human presence – also offers interesting possibilities from the point of view of economic activities based on leisure and tourism,” adds Araújo.
“What we have verified with this study is that several countries could take advantage of depopulated areas to expand areas with greater environmental protection and thus help develop the European strategy for biodiversity in the 2030 horizon,” concludes Araújo.
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