The 3 D’s of Rewilding

20th December 2021

An easy to understand definition of rewilding, based on scientific principles. These 3 dimensions aren’t all or nothing – rewilding is a spectrum and each step along the way will yield results.

Resilience

Rewilding is a way of bringing back resilience to ecosystems and helping nature to help ourselves.

Before rewilding, humans tried to work against nature to reduce risks from events like wildfire or floods.

Rewilding is about working with nature to bring back natural processes which can protect us from severe events and restore biodiversity.

Rewilding can be broken down into three steps, which all build back stability:

Diversity

The more species (higher diversity) in a food web, the more stable it is, as losing one species has less impact.
Diversity can be improved with reintroductions, especially species which went locally extinct.
Wild landscapes should also be diverse, with a rich ‘mosaic’ of habitats providing space for many species.

Disturbance

Big and small changes (disturbances) happen constantly in the wild, creating new habitats and opportunities.
Dead trees and dead animals are important as they support life and return nutrients to the ground.
Landscapes should change over time, especially rivers, where floodplains reduce flooding downstream.

Dispersal

Animals and plants must move (disperse) over time to avoid inbreeding or local extinctions e.g. when there’s a flood.
Fences, roads, fields and forestry plantations can be a barrier to movement for many species.
‘Wildlife corridors’ connect larger natural areas and help them support bigger populations of animals.

Applying the 3 D’s

The ‘3 D’s’ can be used in all types of environment to try and bring back stability.

For example, in an aquarium:

A diverse community of species will keep the tank and water clean for longer periods of time; disturbing the plant growth by cutting it back every so often (mimicking herbivore activity) will prevent overgrowth; increasing the size of the tank will improve dispersal and make water chemistry more stable.

See how we applied the 3 D’s in our article on How to Rewild a Field.

Or learn about this concept in more detail in our article What is Rewilding.

Reference

This theory is adapted from Perino et al’s (2019) three principles; ‘trophic complexity’ (i.e. ‘diversity), ‘disturbances’, and ‘dispersal’.

Perino, Andrea, et al. “Rewilding complex ecosystems.” Science 364.6438 (2019).

I also wrote a companion article to this paper.

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Chris D'Agorne MSc - Founder / How to Rewild

Founder of How to Rewild, with two years' professional experience in the rewilding sector. Chris has a BSc in Psychology and Zoology, with an MSc in Biotechnology and 3.5 acres of land that is being used as an experimental small-scale rewilding project.

How to Rewild
Let's bring nature back.