Does the survival of life on our planet seem increasingly at risk? No matter your political orientation, work-life situation, or food preferences, it’s impossible not to notice the trouble we find ourselves in as a species. The impact we are having on the other 8.7 million species who share this planet with us is—in a word—devastating.

And yet… we can take meaningful action! Underpinning wildness preservation is a core value that’s finding its way into our hearts and minds—an environmental ethic that sees the big picture. It’s called rewilding. This perspective is crucial to Island Conservation’s work on islands that have been cleared of destructive invasive species and have the opportunity to heal.

So what is “rewilding”?

Rewilding is a scalable, generative ecosystem restoration approach to native species and their habitats that anyone can become involved in. It strategically re-balances ecosystems in a few essential steps:

• Preserving core wilderness regions
• Removing non-native predatory species
• Re-establishing natural connectivity corridors
• Re-introducing keystone and indicator species
• Ongoing monitoring and reporting to ensure that an ecosystem is able to return to its dynamic, native state

Vast Benefits

At the heart of rewilding is a clear understanding of our moral obligation to mitigate human damage in order to maintain healthy, thriving ecosystems globally. Environmental partnerships are hugely effective in creating genuine models of restored, thriving ecosystems.

Benefits include:

• Endemic species are able to recover
• Crucial indicator and “connector” species return to a safe home base
• Livelihoods of local communities are secured to maintain their roles as environmental stewards of their native lands
• Local community economies are strengthened
• Forests and woodland growth improves carbon sequestration
• Healthier surrounding oceans sequester carbon faster
• Both local and global biodiversity is connected and enlarged
• Longer-term capacity for regional restoration ecologists and monitoring teams creates more jobs

The team at Island Conservation is rewilding precious islands around the world. From previously extinct birds and geckos reappearing on the Galapagos Islands and rebounding vegetation on Palmyra to marine life and “connector” species thriving in once-barren environments, there are so many good news stories to share.

Bringing back balance is a scalable mission that, if catalyzed, will go a long way to heal our species’ mistakes – such as introducing invasive species to fragile island ecosystems. A healthy, balanced and thriving future for our planet and for our animals is attainable if we act with our hearts and minds connected. Truly understanding the long-term value of preserving—and in many cases re-populating—wild places is also a crucial piece of climate change mitigation.

This is how every one of us starts our own journey to something meaningful. We make a connection, have an “Aha!” moment, and then take action.

Feature image (top): A natural forest on rewilded Palmyra Atoll. Photo by Andrew Wright.