The #rewilding session kicks off with @JCSvenning from @BiochangeAU giving a macro-scale overview of rewilding, and how megafauna reintroductions and rewilding could provide a sustainable future under global change #BES2020

Rich megafauna communities has been the norm for millions of years, and current fauna and flora have evolved in such megafauna-rich ecosystems. Before humans, these species would have evolved in areas that were 100% given to nature

So how do megafauna effect ecosystems and promote biodiversity? The larger species in ecosystems have disproportionate ecological effects, through feeding behaviours and movement that creates habitat heterogeneity and resources through disturbance and nutrient dispersal

Recent work shows that megafauna enhance plant and nutrient dispersal, and could maintaining these processes by tracking changing climates as a result of their large home ranges and daily movement. Potential rewilding could increase the movement capacity across the world

One question that comes up a lot is 'what is the natural density of herbivores?'. Well, across the world, these 'natural' densities are currently very low, and it is much higher in areas with previously fewer extinctions

Overall, the amount of vegetation consumption currently, compared to the present-natural (scenario today without humans across the world) has been greatly reduced, and the restoration of vegetation could be achieved to an extent through megafauna reintroductions

Any form of rewilding also needs to have people at the centre, including making space through where we live, what we eat, and how we manage the land we need to use for food. Management also needs to be adaptive!

Rewilding is a potential solution to the global environmental emergency through restoring larger areas to nature and facilitating megafauna reintroductions which could have a positive role on the climate and biodiversity crises