Rewilding and its effects on Nature and People

Rewilding is a wicked problem and presents several unique challenges for decision-makers. To effectively achieve conservation impact rewilding should occur at the landscape scale, address a range of ecosystem processes, and incorporate multiple diverse stakeholders. This complexity necessitates the need for information that enables conservation professionals to make challenging decisions in various management contexts and under high levels of uncertainty. This study aimed to understand the types of information conservation practitioners are using as evidence to plan and implement landscape restoration projects. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants from 14 conservation NGO's completing landscape restoration activities as part of the European based Endangered Landscapes Programme. The project findings support the view that practitioners undervalue empirical evidence for their decisions. Instead, experiential sources, such as local knowledge, project experience and personal experience, were reported to be the most useful evidence for management decisions. This has important implications for how information should be provided to practitioners to improve the use of evidence in rewilding activities.