Human nature: Rewilding as a means to avoid a future of decline

Rewilding is often portrayed as being no different to land abandonment. But the case of Italy’s Abruzzo region shows this to be far from reality

The unique Marsican brown bear, pictured in a mural in the Abruzzo region of Italy. The abandonment of land a villages to nature has allowed a phenomenal recovery of wildlife in the  area. Pictures: Pádraic Fogarty

What does rewilding a landscape look like? Recently, I travelled to Italy to find out. There, I found that rewilding is not only promoting healthier natural ecosystems and wildlife populations but is addressing long-standing social and economic challenges as well.

Italy’s shrinking population is on stark display in its Apennines region, a couple of hours south-east of Rome. Modern motorways and railways that link Rome with the Adriatic coast bypass idyllic hilltop villages that are increasingly abandoned and aging. Picturesque medieval castles perch above labyrinthine alleys lined with brick houses clinging to slopes that plunge into forested valleys.