Restorative ecological practice: The case of the European Bison in the Southern Carpathians, Romania

Animal geographies; Conservation social science; Critical geography; Ecological restoration; Human-animal relations; Rewilding; Sociology and Political Science

Abstract :

[en] This paper engages with rewilding practice in the particular case of European Bison reintroductions to the Southern Carpathians. In doing so, it questions traditional notions of species purity implied in wisent conservation so far, and shows how these can be problematic. The argument takes animal agency seriously and explores how incorporating the animals’ view can challenge and modify rewilding practice. It proposes the concept of restorative ecological practice as a new stage in the human relation to the environment and in the history of conservation. Nature restoration in a world of accelerating material change is best understood as rebuilding relationships between humans and their environments, and not as returning to previous states. This idea implies that we have entered an experimental phase of nature conservation where inherited notions of what counts as an animal, and what animals can and should do, need to be thoroughly interrogated. New relationships between impure species are an integral part of the future of conservation.

Disciplines :

Sociology & social sciences

Author, co-author :

Tanasescu, Mihnea ; Université de Mons - UMONS ; Research Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Political Science Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

Restorative ecological practice: The case of the European Bison in the Southern Carpathians, Romania

Publication date :

October 2019

Journal title :

Geoforum

ISSN :

0016-7185

eISSN :

1872-9398

Publisher :

Elsevier Ltd

Volume :

105

Pages :

99 - 108

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0016718519301605?httpAccept=text/xml

Research institute :

Soci&Ter

Funders :

Research Foundation Flanders

Funding text :

This research was made possible by the generous support of the Research Foundation Flanders (grant FWOTM756). The author would like to thank Marcel Wissenburg and three anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments on earlier drafts. The author is especially grateful to Adi Hagatis and Sandu Bulacu for their humbling generosity.This research was made possible by the generous support of the Research Foundation Flanders (grant FWOTM756 ). The author would like to thank Marcel Wissenburg and three anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments on earlier drafts. The author is especially grateful to Adi Hagatis and Sandu Bulacu for their humbling generosity.

Data Set :

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.05.013

Available on ORBi UMONS :

since 25 November 2022

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