Tourism and rewilding: an introduction – definition, issues and review

Abstract

Rewilding is an increasingly significant normative concept in biological conservation, environmental planning and urban greenspace studies. Originally developed in relation to ecological restoration theory and practice the term has developed over time and has come to be used in a range of environmental discourses. Along with other ecosystem services tourism provides a major economic justification for rewilding, although specific studies on rewilding and tourism are limited. In introducing this special issue of Journal of Ecotourism on tourism and rewilding attention is given to the main definitions and approaches to rewilding, their application, and some of the issues that emerge, including contestation over not only how rewilding is framed but also the implications of the (re)introduction of wild animals. Rewilding therefore provides new opportunities to examine the nature-culture relationship and the ethics, management and policies associated with tourism's embeddedness in ecological restoration practices and the framing of the wild.