Promoting grazing or rewilding initiatives against rural exodus? The return of the wolf and other large carnivores must be considered
Mariano R. Recio, Håkan Sand, Emílio Virgós
Abstract
Summary The human abandonment of rural areas facilitates rewilding, which is also supported by European projects and initiatives. Rewilding often implies the return of iconic predators such as the wolf ( Canis lupus ), leading to human–wildlife conflicts. To reverse human depopulation, initiatives such as the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidize extensive grazing of areas unsuitable for intensive agriculture. Therefore, rewilding and reversing depopulation initiatives seem to be mutually incompatible, and further insight into controversial aspects of the return of apex predators is needed when considering the reform of the CAP for post-2020. To develop understanding of these different objectives in the context of large carnivore recolonizations, we analysed wolf attacks on livestock in central Spain, where livestock is managed differently between the plateau and the mountains. As with other European regions, this area is undergoing rural abandonment and is subsidized by the CAP. Free-roaming cattle at higher elevations were subject to increased attacks irrespective of the abundance of wild prey. Efforts to subsidize human repopulation of areas experiencing recolonization by large carnivores require consideration of a model of cohabitation with these predators assisted by mitigation and compensation measures. Rewilding could bring alternative sustainable income based on the values brought by the presence of large carnivores and associated ecosystem services.