“The question is one of teleology, of final ends: the fundamental goal of all rewilding … is the restoration of self-willed ecology, while the fundamental goal of all agriculture is the production and sale of food.“
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BUT - we have to ensure that natural grazing functionality is actually restored.
See our study of early attempts that need more work:
We need greater focus on which processes are and which aren't restored in agricultural rewilding.
But we can't study what isn't there.
We need a new OVP in Europe, this time with Elephants and wolves!
Knepp is a pioneer and contributes immensely to public opinion and knowledge of rewilding.
BUT they avoid controversy by keeping their herbivores safely below carrying capacity. This means reduced herbivore functionality - likely explaining why Knepp is no botanical success
Natural herbivore communities are limited by carrying capacity and biomass-dominated by megaherbivores.
Large- and megaherbivores closer to natural densities have very strong effects on vegetation, exemplified in Southern Africa's new "elephant problem".
For a deep dive, see our new study:
With cell grazing we can take livestock and/or wild herbivores anywhere.
Elephants and rhino are still available and I'd even suggest giraffe partly as high browsers and because some of our expert livestock breeders could increase their populations.