The global legal and policy environment has never been more supportive of rewilding. Yet there are still many cases where existing policies and laws constrain practical rewilding efforts by supporting and obligating human management of the environment.

Within the EU it is currently impossible for cattle or horses to be considered wild; they are always classed as domesticated animals. This has important implications for their registration and management. Within a rewilding context – like following a reintroduction or translocation – these animals would ideally be allowed to roam free with little to no human management. However, the law often requires them to be registered, vetted and in some cases provided with supplementary feeding.

Similarly, there are laws that prevent carcasses being left in nature. These laws were introduced to protect human health and ensure food safety in an agricultural environment. In a rewilding context it means that the carcasses of animals that are legally classed as domestic, such as horses and cattle, must be removed from the landscape even if they are living in huge remote areas far from food production. Removing carcasses reduces the food available for scavengers, such as vultures, eagles, foxes and a wide range of invertebrates.

Aviary at Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria. Credit: Ivo Danchev.

Scavengers of all descriptions are a fundamental part of a healthy ecosystem. Rewilding therefore aims to change or remove laws and policies that prevent these natural processes from taking place, in settings where it is safe to do so.

Rewilders are finding new ways to apply and interpret laws to align them more closely with global and European commitments to restore nature. Rewilders can play a pioneering role by challenging the status quo and finding new ways for laws to be interpreted in order to advance nature recovery across Europe.