Peter Cairns Director, SCOTLAND: The Big Picture
SCOTLAND: The Big Picture is a non-profit organisation dedicated to communicating the benefits of rewilding and bringing that conversation into the mainstream. The aim is to engage in a respectful dialogue to develop a shared vision of the future in which Scotland is a world leader in ecological restoration. scotlandbigpicture.com
“Let’s just imagine that nature is a finely tuned car engine. Most engines, for a time at least, can withstand losing some of their components, or others functioning below par. Eventually however, the engine’s performance is compromised and ultimately, it stops altogether. I would suggest that in Britain today we have a faltering ecological engine. Many of the bits are missing, and others are underperforming in an impoverished landscape.
“By the time conservation became a thing, our ecological engine was already missing all of its large carnivores and most of its large herbivores. Since then, conservation efforts have focused on saving individual species – fragments and threads of the complex and dynamic systems that once shaped our land. At one time or another, we’ve had a go at saving a whole raft of creatures, but despite our best intentions it’s like replacing random engine parts without fully understanding why the engine is spluttering.
“This quote from Doug Chadwick, a celebrated wildlife biologist, hints at a new direction: ‘The essence of nature is a wholeness woven from infinite complexity. Trying to save it piece by piece doesn’t make sense even if we had all the time in the world, and we most certainly do not.’
“Ecological restoration, or rewilding, seeks to return wholeness; to restore abundance and diversity of life to Britain’s depleted ecosystems. Rewilding is about reaching optimal ecological performance, and if we accept that performance is relative to completeness, then we have to think beyond hanging on to what is left, to restoring what is missing. If we don’t, the living systems on which we all depend will continue to falter and could eventually fail.
“Reintroducing animals was a dark art 30 years ago – we simply didn’t know how, but we do now. Red kites, sea eagles, cranes, pine martens and more recently, beavers, have all been restored to areas where they’ve not been seen in generations. The challenge now is about people’s attitudes and perceptions; their social values and cultural beliefs.
“There are myriad opinions on the moral, ecological, economic and political merits of restoring extinct species. People’s perspectives are weighed down by belief systems that form throughout their lives, shaped by their parents, education, social background, peer groups and even religious persuasions. These factors all influence what we believe to be right or wrong, and what we stand for.
“There is now compelling science backing the benefits of intact, fully functioning living systems, or ecological engines, but returning any species to Britain is less about science and more about our willingness to live alongside animals that we’ve long forgotten.”