The economic opportunity of rewilding

3.2 The risks of natural products

Despite these benefits it's essential to carefully assess the potential trade-offs involved in harvesting or producing nature-based products as they could also have a potential negative impact on the ecosystem.

If not done in line with rewilding principles their development may lead to:

• Increased pressure on natural areas through unsustainable harvesting volumes or practices.
• Extension of farmed lands into areas where nature has started to recover.
• Promoting intensive farming practices to produce more of the natural resource being used, or to reduce the cost per unit of the resource.
• Promoting conflicts with animals where wildlife is also a consumer of the same natural resource, like in orchards or apiaries.