Abstract

This study will complement a growing body of interdisciplinary research concerned with the cultural and geopolitics of nature conservation and rewilding in a changing Europe. Through the analysis of the ways through which new understandings and temporalities of nature and wild(er)ness are being used, implemented and contested, it will contribute to wider debates about wildlife conservation in the Anthropocene, where nature is no longer regarded as pure, untouched and wild. At a more practical level, this will be valuable to conservationists and environmental policy-makers, as well as growing debates about rewilding and wilderness (eg. WILD10). At the same time, and as Rewilding Europe proposes the establishment of large rewilding areas forming ecological corridors and networks across the continent, transcending nationalised territories of European wildlife, the proposed multi-scale approach (from the local to the European level) will also contribute to wider geopolitical debates about European integration, European identity and nationalism.

Team