Megafauna Rewilding: Addressing Amnesia and Myopia in Biodiversity Law and Policy

Abstract

Large mammals (megafauna) are disproportionately important for ecosystem functioning and biodiversity, but have been lost to disproportionate degrees, mostly in prehistoric times. Against the background of scientific knowledge regarding the state of ecosystems before a man-made wave of extinctions significantly reduced the numbers and diversity of megafauna on most continents, this article examines how (inter)national law and policy relate to efforts to restore large herbivores, omnivores and carnivores to terrestrial ecosystems around the world. Such megafauna rewilding, involving the (re)introduction of vanished species or proxies thereof, poses significant challenges to current laws and policies at national and domestic levels. These tend to have institutionalised a collective amnesia and myopia regarding what is ‘natural’ and ‘indigenous’. The success of future megafauna restoration efforts will partly depend on an understanding of what it takes to navigate, adjust or redesign applicable legal frameworks, and the article tables a research agenda to that end.