Feral (book)

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Feral - Rewilding the land, sea and human life
Feral (Monbiot book).jpg
Searching for enchantment on the frontiers of rewilding
Author George Monbiot
Language English
Subject Rewilding
Genrenon-fiction
Publisher Penguin Books
Publication date
October 2013
Media typepaperback
Pages316
ISBN 978-1846147487

Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding (also published as Feral: rewilding the land, sea and human life) [1] is a 2013 book by the British activist George Monbiot. In it, Monbiot discusses rewilding, particularly in the United Kingdom. It was first published by Allen Lane, a hardback imprint of the Penguin Group. The book received positive critical reviews, and won several awards. It inspired the founding of Rewilding Britain.

Contents

Background

By Monbiot's own account, rewilding was a fringe interest at the time he published the book. [2] However, there had been attempts at rewilding in Britain such as "Wild Ennerdale" at Ennerdale, Cumbria, a project which Monbiot finds limited in scope.

The word ‘rewilding’ entered the dictionary in 2011, [3] with its definition greatly contested from the start. [4] Initially, it was defined as releasing captive animals into the wild, but the definition was soon expanded to describe the reintroduction of animal and plant species to habitats from which they had been excised. In other circles, the term is used to indicate the rehabilitation of entire ecosystems, instead of particular species only. The definitions preferred by the author differ slightly from these, as they entail permitting ecological processes to resume (without human intervention), and embracing the fluctuations in the physical environment (instead of attempting to keep it in a state of arrested development). In summary, Monbiot defines the concept as follows: “Rewilding, to me, is about resisting the urge to control nature and allowing it to find its own way.” [5]

Synopsis

Monbiot addresses readers who feel the urge for a wilder life and encourages them to challenge their perception of humankind’s place in the world, the world's ecosystems, and the interaction between humankind and nature. [6] While also referencing his own experiences exploring the Welsh coastline and mountains, Monbiot looks at rewilding projects around the world, and pays particular attention to the scope for rewilding in the United Kingdom. He argues that overgrazing is a problem in the British uplands and calls for sheep numbers to be reduced so that areas can be rewilded. [7] The author looks at the phenomenon of British big cats, supposed sightings which in his view reflect human origins in a wilder landscape. [8] The author discusses the risks and benefits of reintroducing several species to the UK, including beavers, wolves and lynx, arguing that some recently extinct megafauna being reintroduced could provide ecosystem and economic benefits.

After initial chapters that serve as an introduction to the author’s personal and academic interest in the subject matter, the content takes the form of case studies. According to the author, case studies relating successful rewilding projects around the world (Scotland, Wales, North America) serve to provide examples of good practice and offer the reader hope (that rewilding is indeed possible). In chapter 11, “The Beast Within (or how not to rewild)”, case studies of rewilding in Slovenia, Croatia, Eastern Poland and the Americas that occurred as result of political tyranny, civil war, genocide and tyranny serve as cautionary tales. The author strongly believes that rewilding must not be an opposition to the people who live on and benefit from the land but must be done with their consent and active engagement. Monbiot is critical of the current state of conservation in the United Kingdom and advocates for sea rewilding and expansion of marine reserves.

Reception

Monbiot's book received criticism from organisations representing farmers, such as the Farmers' Union of Wales who objected to the book's characterisation of sheep farming as environmentally damaging and the Welsh Uplands as a "slow-burning ecological disaster". [9] On the other hand, the book received favourable reviews, including in publications normally hostile to Monbiot's work, such as The Spectator [10] and The Daily Telegraph . [11] Many reviewers were impressed by the lyrical nature of the book's prose style. According to the New Statesman 's reviewer "something about the charm and persistence of Monbiot’s argument has the hypnotic effect of a stoat beguiling a hapless rabbit". [3]

Awards

The book won awards from:

Outcomes

One of the outcomes of the book was the charity Rewilding Britain founded in 2015. [7]

The debate between Monbiot and the farming community about the management of Britain's uplands continued, for example in the aftermath of the Storm Desmond floods in Cumbria in December 2015. [16] The authorities responded to the floods with engineering projects such as constructing raised linear walls and embankments along the River Kent in Kendal, but there has also been a commitment to making use of natural flood control. A small deculverting scheme has been trialled in Kendal and upstream measures are planned "to slow the flow of water and provide wider environmental benefits across the catchment". [17] In 2022 a programme to restore and improve rivers in the Lake District won the European Riverprize. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Monbiot</span> English writer and political activist (born 1963)

George Joshua Richard Monbiot is a British journalist, author, and environmental and political activist. He writes a regular column for The Guardian and has written several books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Species reintroduction</span> Wildlife conservation technique

Species reintroduction is the deliberate release of a species into the wild, from captivity or other areas where the organism is capable of survival. The goal of species reintroduction is to establish a healthy, genetically diverse, self-sustaining population to an area where it has been extirpated, or to augment an existing population. Species that may be eligible for reintroduction are typically threatened or endangered in the wild. However, reintroduction of a species can also be for pest control; for example, wolves being reintroduced to a wild area to curb an overpopulation of deer. Because reintroduction may involve returning native species to localities where they had been extirpated, some prefer the term "reestablishment".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oostvaardersplassen</span> Nature reserve in the Netherlands

The Oostvaardersplassen is a nature reserve in the Netherlands, managed by the Staatsbosbeheer. Covering about 56 square kilometres (22 sq mi) in the province of Flevoland, it is an experiment in rewilding. It is in a polder created in 1968; by 1989, its ecological interest had resulted in its being declared a Ramsar wetland. It became part of Nieuw Land National Park when that was established in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheep farming</span> Animal husbandry

Sheep farming or sheep husbandry is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. It is a branch of animal husbandry. Sheep are raised principally for their meat, milk, and fiber (wool). They also yield sheepskin and parchment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British big cats</span> Reports of large non-native feline sightings in Britain

In British folklore and urban legend, British big cats refers to the subject of reported sightings of non-native, typically large felids feral in the United Kingdom. Many of these creatures have been described as "panthers", "pumas" or "black cats".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ennerdale, Cumbria</span> Valley in Cumbria, England

Ennerdale is a valley in Cumbria, England. Ennerdale Water, fed by the River Liza, is the most westerly lake in the Lake District National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pleistocene rewilding</span> Ecological practice

Pleistocene rewilding is the advocacy of the reintroduction of extant Pleistocene megafauna, or the close ecological equivalents of extinct megafauna. It is an extension of the conservation practice of rewilding, which aims to restore functioning, self-sustaining ecosystems through practices that may include species reintroductions.

A feral animal is an animal living in the wild but descended from domesticated individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rewilding</span> Restoring of wilderness environments

Rewilding is a form of ecological restoration aimed at increasing biodiversity and restoring natural processes. It differs from other forms of ecological restoration in that rewilding aspires to reduce human influence on ecosystems. It is also distinct from other forms of restoration in that, while it places emphasis on recovering geographically specific sets of ecological interactions and functions that would have maintained ecosystems prior to human influence, rewilding is open to novel or emerging ecosystems which encompass new species and new interactions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rewilding Britain</span> British charitable environmental organization

Rewilding Britain is an organisation founded in 2015 that aims to promote the rewilding of Great Britain. It is a registered charity in England, Wales and Scotland.

Rewilding Europe is a non-profit organization based in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, dedicated to creating rewilded landscapes throughout Europe. The group's efforts have contributed to increasing the stock of previously endangered species such as the European bison and the Iberian lynx.

Reed F. Noss, a conservation biologist since the beginning of the field in the early 1980s, is a writer, photographer, and speaker. He retired in 2017 as Provost's Distinguished Research Professor, Pegasus Professor, and Davis-Shine Professor at the University of Central Florida. He is President and Chief Scientist for the Florida Institute for Conservation Science, Chief Science Advisor for the Southeastern Grasslands Initiative, and Chief Science Advisor for the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance. Noss' published work consists of over 350 published or in press scientific articles, book chapters, and major reports and eight published books, with another book in preparation.

Lake District High Fells is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) in Cumbria, England, which was designated in 2005. It is a multi-site SAC with an area of 27003.07 ha consisting of 10 separate sites including the summit of Scafell Pike, which at 977 m is the highest mountain in England. The SAC takes its name from the English Lake District and "Fell", the local word for a mountain. It protects 16 habitat types listed in the European Union's Habitats Directive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasian beaver reintroduction</span> Effort in Europe to restore beaver range

The Eurasian beaver has been the successful subject of a century of official and unapproved species reintroduction programs in Europe and Asia. Beavers had been driven to the point of near extinction in Eurasia by humans trapping and hunting them for their meat, fur and castoreum. The reintroductions and conservation led in 2008, to the IUCN assessing the Eurasian beaver as being of "least concern" on its red list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasian lynx reintroduction in Great Britain</span> Possible reintroduction of wild species

The Eurasian lynx is the target of ongoing species reintroduction proposals in Great Britain. Proposed locations include the Scottish Highlands and Kielder Forest in Northumberland, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frans Vera</span> Dutch biologist and conservationist

Dr Frans Vera is a Dutch biologist and conservationist. He has played a key part in devising the current ecological strategy for the Netherlands. He has hypothesised that Western European primeval forests at the end of the Pleistocene epoch did not consist only of "closed-canopy" high-forest conditions, but also included pastures combined with forests, a hypothesis variously addressed as the Vera hypothesis or the wood-pasture hypothesis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celtic Rewilding Ltd</span> Company supporting species reintroduction and rewilding

Celtic Rewilding, formally known as Celtic Reptile & Amphibian, is a conservation company, established in 2020, by Harvey Tweats and Tom Whitehurst, with the initial aim of reintroducing extinct reptiles and amphibians back to rewilding projects within the UK. However, the company's scope has since broadened to all lost species of the UK and northern Europe. It is based in Leek, Staffordshire.

Lee Schofield is a British naturalist and nature writer. He wrote Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm, which describes his work as site manager for the RSPB at Haweswater in the Lake District National Park.

<i>Wild by Design</i> A 2022 environmental book by Laura J. Martin

Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration is a 2022 book by Laura J. Martin, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Williams College. The book explains how ecological restoration became a global pursuit. Martin defines restoration as "an attempt to co-design nature with non-human collaborators." Wild by Design calls for the unification of ecological restoration and social justice.

References

  1. Feral. 5 June 2014. Retrieved 2 December 2017.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  2. Monbiot, George. "Britain's National Parks are a farce: they're being run for a tiny minority".
  3. 1 2 Shilling, Jane (July 2013). "Jay Griffiths, George Monbiot, Sylvain Tesson and Philip Hoare: how pastoral writing is being redefined". New Statesman. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  4. Chambers Dictionary, 12th Edition
  5. Feral, p 9-10
  6. Feral, p 11
  7. 1 2 Piesing, M. "George Monbiot on "rewilding" the countryside". i . Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  8. Bracke, Astrid. Climate Crisis and the 21st-Century British Novel.
  9. Sion Morgan, "FUW Rejects 'Ecological Disaster' Accusation; 'We Won't Give In To Latest Attack On Our Way Of Life'", June 4, 2013, Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales). MGN Ltd. Accessed via TheFreeLibrary.
  10. "Sam Leith enjoys a vision of Britain where sheep may no longer safely graze". The Spectator. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  11. "Philip Hoare is enchanted by a call for the return of bear, beaver and bison to Britain". The Daily Telegraph. London. 28 May 2013. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  12. ZSL Scientific Awards winners announced
  13. "Book Awards". www.rsb.org.uk. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  14. Society Awards Celebrate Biology Books and Art
  15. "Orion Magazine | Past Winners: The Orion Book Award". Orion Magazine. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  16. Monbiot, George (December 2015). "Do little, hide the evidence: the official neglect that caused these deadly floods" . Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  17. "Upper Kent". The flood hub. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  18. "Cumbrian rivers project scoops prestigious European Riverprize" (Press release). Environment Agency. 1 December 2022.