Wednesday, July 8, 2026

2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Room BE.0.18

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Details

Rewilding is now a global movement for restoring nature (Carver et al., 2025). While reclaiming wilderness is one important aspect of rewilding, restoring nature and wildlife in heavily human-modified environments presents valuable opportunities for rewilding places where people must coexist in proximity with nature (Pettorelli et al., 2019). East Asia and Europe both support high biodiversity, contain some of the most economically developed urban centres, and are culturally diverse. Both regions are also facing similar challenges in balancing biodiversity conservation priorities and the needs of human societies, since both have high human population densities and have undergone dramatic environmental change in recent history. To maximize the likelihood of success and ensure the sustainability of rewilding endeavours, and to reduce unintended consequences, interdisciplinary conservation science is needed better understand the human dimensions in complex social-ecological systems (Perino et al., 2019; Hawkins et al., 2025). We present a portfolio of research to share experiences across East Asia and Europe to demonstrate the variety of approaches taken to tackle knowledge gaps and management challenges and learn from each other. We give examples of practical techniques that are used in Europe including structured decision-making, interdisciplinary research methodologies, and participatory research to better understand the socio-ecological context of rewilding that could improve conservation management in East Asia. Similarly, we also showcase innovative approaches to rewilding and nature recovery in East Asia, such as recovery of keystone species in urban and semi-urban landscapes, mobilization of local communities in conservation management, and managing human-wildlife conflict that are relevant to Europe. Lessons learnt from these studies can not only help conservationists find practical solutions to the current challenges experienced in the densely populated and culturally diverse East Asia and Europe but also have wider applicability to nature recovery efforts worldwide.

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Speakers and Presentation Titles

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Organiser