Rewilding: letting nature come back to life

Humankind has developed so much that urban sprawl and intensive agriculture now dominate our landscapes. Unfortunately, with that comes the threat of climate change and a loss of biodiversity. What if we could return these landscapes to places that teem with wildlife, with ecosystems thriving as they did centuries ago?
人类发展如此之快，以至于城市扩张和集约农业现在主宰了我们的景观。不幸的是，随之而来的是气候变化的威胁和生物多样性的丧失。如果我们能够将这些景观恢复到遍布野生动物的状态，让生态系统重现几个世纪前的繁荣，那会怎样呢？

Since the 1980s, the concept of rewilding has increased in popularity. But what exactly is it, and what are the keys to its success? Put simply, rewilding is a technique that returns landscapes to a wilder, more natural state. It often involves reintroducing plants or animals that used to live there, but now don't.
自20世纪80年代以来，再野化的概念越来越受欢迎。但究竟什么是再野化，它的关键又是什么？简单地说，再野化是一种将景观恢复到更原始、更自然状态的技术。它通常包括重新引入那些曾经栖息于此，但现在已不复存在的植物和动物。

Not-for-profit organisation Rewilding Europe says rewilding is "about letting nature take care of itself, enabling natural processes to shape land and sea, repair damaged ecosystems and restore degraded landscapes." So, unlike traditional conservation techniques, the aim is to reduce the need for human intervention once the programme has been set up.
非营利组织“再野化欧洲”（Rewilding Europe）称，野化是“让大自然自我修复，让自然过程塑造陆地和海洋，修复受损的生态系统，恢复退化的景观”。因此，与传统的保护技术不同，再野化的目的是在项目建立后减少人工干预的需求。

In a 2021 article called 'Guiding principles for rewilding', one suggestion is to introduce plants, prey animals, and fungi first, so that when the top predator is introduced, they have an appropriate habitat to support them.
在2021年一篇名为《再野化指导原则》的文章中，一个建议是首先引入植物、被捕食动物和真菌，这样，当引入顶级捕食者时，它们将拥有适宜的栖息地来支持它们的生存。

Other tips are more people focused. Even though rewilding is about reducing human presence in ecosystems, that doesn't mean we should be excluded from nature. The authors encourage compassion and learning from nature, rather than dominating it. They also say that, to avoid fear amongst rural communities that their farmland will be taken away, and that new predators will endanger their livestock, local people should be included so they have some control over the process and can directly benefit from it.
其他的建议是更关注人。尽管再野化是为了减少人类在生态系统中的存在，但这并不意味着我们应该被排除在自然之外。作者鼓励同情和向自然学习，而不是支配它。他们还指出，为了避免农村社区担心他们的农田被占用，以及新的捕食者威胁到他们的牲畜，应该让当地人参与进来，这样他们就能在一定程度上控制这一过程，并从中直接获益。

Alex Stevenson owns Jordan's Farm in Essex, England and is rewilding her fields, hoping to help the ecosystem thrive. She says, "I am rewilding to look after nature and to give life back to the soil" and adds, "you have to value nature because nature sustains us – we are part of it."
亚历克斯·史蒂文森是英国埃塞克斯郡乔丹农场的农场主，她正在对自己的田地进行再野化，希望帮助生态系统茁壮成长。她说：“我进行再野化是为了保护大自然，让土壤恢复生机”，她还说：“你必须珍视大自然，因为大自然养育了我们——我们是大自然的一部分”。

词汇表
urban sprawl 城市扩张
agriculture 农业
landscape景观，环境
biodiversity 生物多样性
teem with 充满
ecosystem 生态系统
thrive 蓬勃发展
wild 野生的
shape 塑造
degraded 退化的
conservation 保护
prey 猎物，被捕食的动物
fungi 菌类
predator 捕食性动物
habitat 栖息地
rural 农村的
livestock 牲畜

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