Thinking marine rewilding: adapting a terrestrial notion to the marine realm. Definition, practices and theories of marine rewilding

Abstract

While academic research in social science relating to rewilding mainly focuses on terrestrial initiatives, scant attention is given to marine rewilding. During the last ten years, marine rewilding initiatives have increasingly flourished every year around the world. The few articles dealing with marine rewilding emanate from biological and economic domains and address the scientific and economic feasibility of the initiatives. However, research still needs to provide a broad perspective on the implementing conditions of marine rewilding through a typology of the stakeholders, their vision, scientific approaches, management methods, and challenges. This article presents a literature review on marine rewilding initiatives and opens a critical discussion on the challenging conditions of their implementation. Through analysis of academic and grey literature on rewilding concepts and practices, the findings of this article indicate that rewilding was initially conceived for terrestrial areas in the 1990s before expanding to include marine environments in the 2010s. It also highlights that marine rewilding initiatives continue to be influenced by terrestrial and anthropocentric assumptions. These projects do not form a distinct movement but rather a series of isolated experiments where stakeholders interact across multiple scales to exchange knowledge and outcomes. Furthermore, the initiatives blend with traditional nature conservation methods because of scientific constraints and the need to gain social and political approval. Through these processes, marine rewilding initiatives constitute new ecological fronts in which marine areas’ uses and meanings are transformed.