Rewilding Futures: Shaping Tomorrow's Wild

Rewilding is often seen as a transformative solution to the biodiversity crisis, yet it remains contentious, particularly when it comes to defining people's role in the process of rewilding. To explore this, we identified three ways people engage with nature in rewilding contexts: human–nature dichotomy, human–nature compromise, and human–nature mutualism. Through 51 interviews with stakeholders from two British rewilding projects, we examined how people interact with rewilding projects on the ground. The findings reveal that while these categories broadly capture people’s relationships with nature, individuals often hold multiple, sometimes conflicting perspectives. This complexity challenges traditional views of human roles in rewilding. Our research suggests that no single approach to human involvement is universally applicable in rewilding. Instead, embracing a diversity of human–nature interactions can foster more inclusive, adaptive practices that meet both human and ecological needs, supporting the growth of the global rewilding movement.