Passive rewilding refers to activelyunmanaged environments that are allowed toregain natural dominance, typically after theirabandonment.[1][2] A type ofrewilding, passive rewilding aims to restore naturalecosystem processes via minimal or the total withdrawal ofdirect human management of the landscape,[3][4][5][6][7] Passive rewilding allows natural processes to restore themselves, and enables a particular level of chaos as woodlands reclaim land, species to return andecological disturbances likewildfires,pests and floods contribute to the area.[8][9]
Sometimes referred to asnature's reclamation,[10][11] it differs from other forms of rewilding in that directhuman management or intervention is completely absent, whereby the environment is subsequently overgrown and occupied by natural elements on its own.[12] In 1998, science fiction authorBruce Sterlingcoined the terminvoluntary park to describe previously inhabited areas that for environmental, economic, or political reasons have lost their value for technological functionalism and been allowed to return to an overgrown,feral state.[13][14][15]
Passive rewilding includes abandonedhuman settlements and developments, such as post-agricultural lands for instance, that are intentionally left undisturbed and later becomespontaneously overtaken byfoliage andwild animals. Such occurrences are known to exist in numerous locations around the world.[16]Degraded or abandoned land is actually the forefront of a globalreforestation.[9]
There are three important factors to passive rewilding; revivingtrophic complexity, orbiodiversity, by allowingwildlife to return (such as by limitinghunting), though in other cases it may involve resettlement. The second factor is allowing landscapes to rejoin, so in a way that plants and animals can travel around. The third component is permitting erratic disturbances such as fires, pests and floods. However, allowing nature run haphazardly and being left to chance is unacceptable to the traditional methods of ecological restoration and can be a complicated matter to accept forwesterners.[8] Passive rewilding may also expand to any area of formerly actively managed land (either rural or urban) that is currently experiencing extremely limited active management or none at all.[2] Structures occupyingurban areas that have been demolished, leaving patchy areas of green space that are usually untended and unmanaged, form an involuntary park.[14]
Passive rewilding is a capable method for expandingtree cover and restoring biodiversity through the means of abandoning land management and permitting natural vegetation succession to occur for the restoration ofnatural habitats and biodiversity, expandnative forest, and to increase ecosystem services and strength, and as well as forscientific research. Land is abandoned to passive rewilding either purposely, or due to socio-economic change.[1] A strong argument in favor of passive rewilding is the minimal cost approaches to restoration, particularly on a large scale. Though widespread forest growth can transform into a homogenous landscape, and biodiversity is generally againsthomogeneity.[8]Garden plants escaping gardens and rewilding the surrounding areas are calledescaped plants, although these have detrimental effects on native species and communities, in addition to beingweedy andinvasive.[17]
Forest recovery has been occurring in abandonedpastures, scrubby bush andforest margins throughoutEurope andNorth America, since nature repels an ecological vacuum and therefore hastily fills it.[9] Passive rewilding as de-management may benefit ecosystems in theUnited Kingdom as it liberates resources and leads to ecological consequences which benefit both wild nature and society. Evidence allows for short-medium term prognoses in passive rewilding sites inWestern Europe.[2] The abandonment of agricultural land use practices drives the natural establishment of forests throughecological succession inSpain.[18] This spontaneous forest establishment has several consequences for society and nature, such as increase of fire risk and frequency andbiodiversity loss.[19] Regarding biodiversity loss, research findings from theMediterranean basin showed that this is very site-dependent.[20] More recently, the abandonment of land is also discussed by some as an opportunity forrewilding in rural areas in Spain.[21][22]
Removing sheep is one of the first steps in passive rewilding inBritain, as they can eradicatewildflowers and other essential species. Though old pig breeds can remain as a substitute for wild boars. If there is a scarcity of plants, these species are replanted to promote their spread. Fences are also removed andwetlands are created, in addition to removing non-native species.[8] In Portugal,grazing animals such as thebison can clear land and establish open areas where biodiversity can thrive, whereaswild boars may disturb the soil as they search for food.[8] In Britain, farmland bird species decreased as passive rewilding progressed, although woodland birds increased. In the process of passive rewilding,thorny shrub bushes covered 53% of the site in Britain, and formerhedges became degraded.[1] Passive rewilding may also occur in anurban prairie, which is a vacanturban land that has been restored togreen space, although rewilding here is not always passive as many urban prairies tend to be managed.[23]
Abandoned towns,villages,farmlands, disusedrailways,mines, quarries andairfields, or areas experiencingurban decay anddeindustrialization, may be subject to a resurgence in ecological proliferation and rewilding as human presence is reduced. Wildlife will rebound and reclaim abandoned human structures in such zones, when given the chance.[24] This opportunity is as basic as humans leaving a place to be regenerated by nature.[12] While Bruce Sterling's original vision of an involuntary park was of places abandoned due tocollapse of economy orrising sea level, the term has come to be used on any land wherehuman inhabitation or use for one reason or other has been stopped.[25][26]
Other other man-made environments that can be swarming with new ecosystems includetemple ruins,[24] areas considered dangerous due to pollution,abandoned theme parks,shipwrecks,military exclusion zones/exclusion zones andabandoned vehicles.[27] In urban areas,moss covers disintegrating buildings,sand dunes or vegetation engulf entire houses, and trees and animals scramble over former walkways.[28] After a lack ofmaintenance in buildings, the elements freely impact the structures, therefore roofs degenerate and permit rain to seep in, and walls fracture, allowing roots to permeate, and spaces open up to create fortuities for seeds to root. The walls and floors ultimately become habitats for wildlife, while windows and roofs turn into sanctuaries.[29]
Involuntary parks where human presence is severely limited can host animal species that are otherwise extremely threatened in their range. When such parks develop in an urban or formerly urban location, it may become the target ofurban exploration forhobbyists. The aesthetics of nature's reclamation of urban buildings has acquired the attention of artists,photographers and architects alike.[29][16] Observers are attracted to seeing nature rewilding decaying structures such as broken windows, cracks on the walls, and other spaces built by man.[29]Enthusiasts view such natural reclamation of neglected areas asinspirational and poetic, as it serves as a reminder ofimpermanence and howbeauty exists even in decay.[16][29] Regarding involuntary parks, Sterling states:
The continent'simperiled rims have become a new kind of landscape — the involuntary parks. They are not representations of untouched nature, but of vengeful nature...[30] Abandoned areas of the planet can no longer "revert to Nature" as they once supposedly did. Instead, they must revert to Next Nature, becoming weird "involuntary parks" such as theCypriot Green Line, a long, human-free strip of flammableweeds and weed-trees,junkyards andlandmines.[31]
The ruins ofSabratha inLibya are undergoing severecoastal erosion, with the public baths, theolive-press building, and the ‘harbor’ showing the most damage as their structures have crumbled due to storms and unsettled seas, whilerising sea levels further compromise the integrity of the site.[32][33]Wildflowers have overgrown theTimgad ruins in Algeria.[34]Olive trees and wildflowers have reclaimed the Roman ruins ofDougga inTunisia.[35]
AfterKolmanskop andElizabeth Bay inNamibia were abandoned by 1956, the homes in the villages became filled and eventually submerged in sand.[36] The wreck of theEduard Bohlen in Namibia has been largely engulfed by sand.[37]Plaatjieskraal inSouth Africa, once farmland, has since been overtaken by sand dunes, withrenosterveld flora now dominating the area.[38]
Gladesville Mental Hospital (formerly the Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum) on theLower North Shore features vegetation that cloaks its decaying walls.[37] The marooned wreck ofSS Ayrfield inParramatta River inHomebush has become amangrove forest, and is therefore a protected marine vegetation critical for fish habitat.[39]Paronella Park inQueensland is an involuntary park featuring a concrete castle now overrun by trees and weeds.[37] The remains ofSS Yongala off the coast ofQueensland is now home to hundreds of various species, that includeloggerhead turtles,marbled electric rays,bull sharks andmoray eels.[40]
In a village atMangapurua Valley,New Zealand, historical farming and gardening efforts by soldiers and families indicates that most of the homes,culverts and farms in the Valley are now overrun with grass and marshes, with some fruit and rose trees surviving, indicating historical human presence.[27]Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) permits the vacantresidential red zone—now functioning as an involuntary park—inChristchurch, which suffered severe damage in the2010 and2011 Christchurch earthquakes, to be used temporarily (for up to five years) for activities such ascommunity gardening,mountain biking, andbeekeeping.[41]
Abandoned homes in theFukushima Exclusion Zone are reclaimed by plant life, and the fauna there includeJapanese macaques, commonraccoon dogs,Japanese serow andred foxes.[27] Apartment blocks inHashima Island, Japan are now overwhelmed with weeds, and dense vegetation hang off their dilapidated balconies.[42] Hachijo Royal Resort onHachijō-jima is an abandoned luxury hotel built in the 1960s that is now overgrown and severely dilapidated.[43]
TheKorean Demilitarized Zone is hypothesized to house not onlyKorean tigers, but also thecritically endangeredAmur leopard,[44] although neither have been photographed there since the late 20th century. The once-bustling village ofHoutouwan inChina has been entirely reclaimed byfoliage plants after residents began to leave it in the 1990s.[45] The village is also a tourist site now, where visitors can tour the abandoned, museum-like buildings.[36]
Ta Prohm, a 12th century temple inCambodia, has been reclaimed by large fig,banyan andkapok trees whose roots wrap the temple walls.[27] InHong Kong,aerial roots of over 1,100 banyan trees attach to walls and protrude through pavements andstone walls. Once called the 'Poison Gas Island', the island ofŌkunoshima houses a thousand rabbits.Ross Island, South Andaman district, India, is largely abandoned and rewilding has occurred in the area, with forests retaking the island.[28] TheNew World Department Store inBangkok was colonized by fish such askoi,carp, andcatfish that flourished from therainwater that filled the building,[36] before the water was drained in 2015.[46]Ujung Kulon National Park inJava formed itself on farmland devastated and depopulated by the1883 eruption of Krakatoa; it is now a maintained national park.[47]
Areas of theGolan Heights betweenIsrael,Syria,Lebanon, andJordan have become a haven forIndian wolves,mountain gazelles,wild boars,vultures, and other species due tominefields that prevent human access.[48][49] TheAl Madam village in theUnited Arab Emirates is aghost town that is being reclaimed by thedesert.[27]
The abandoned town ofAkarmara, inAbkhazia, is gradually being absorbed by the natural world, where forests are reclaiming the remaining apartments, and animals such as cows and pigs are found roaming the area.[50] The town ofAgdam, Azerbaijan that was abandoned after theFirst Nagorno-Karabakh War has been overgrown with grasses and weeds.[51] The closed offUnited Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus has become a haven for wildlife.[52]
Inchkeith inScotland was a military defense for over 500 years and now it is home toseal pups, eider duck andEuropean cave spiders. The island ofSwona still have cattle roaming after the inhabitants left the area in the early 1980s.Canvey Wick inEssex now features 300 species of moths and insects due to passive rewilding.[24] A formerslate quarry in Wales was one of the largest producers of slate in the world before shutting down in 1969, and nature has consequentially been reclaiming the land.[12]
Chatterley Whitfield, which was a bustling coal mine inStaffordshire, is now reclaimed bybuddleia,sunflowers, in addition to rabbits, foxes andbadgers.Stack Rock Fort,Wales, is abandoned and reclaimed by plant life and sea birds.[27]Nunhead Cemetery, established in theVictorian era, is now occupied by greenring-necked parakeets, a fungus calleddead man's fingers, andblackberry bushes growing on the graves.[12] The once-comprehensively farmedKnepp Castle Estate inWest Sussex is now a habitat to numerous rare species.[8] Closed in 1999,Plaza cinema inWales has been reclaimed by trees.[53] OnChannelsea Island, a series of derelict buildings have been reclaimed by nature.[54]
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The stone buildings ofVallone dei Mulini inSorrento, Italy, is thoroughly reclaimed by thick and dense vegetation. The abandoned areas ofBussana Vecchia,Pentedattilo andCivita di Bagnoregio contain structures that are overgrown with grass and weeds.[55] Alianello, which is an abandonedhamlet just south ofAliano, features trees that have grown up in the middle of kitchens.[56] In the abandoned town ofCraco, greenery sprouts from decaying bricks of its structures.[37]
Aldea da Barca, inOurense, Spain, which was abandoned in the 1980s, is now overgrown, with vegetation covering much of the roads and building façades.[57] The abandoned village of Turruncún inLa Rioja has slowly been reclaimed by nature.[58] The abandoned old town ofBelchite in Spain features weeds growing through the cracks and crevices of its structures.[37]
Peneda Geres National Park in Portugal, which was a leadingboar territory, before centuries of farming and human influence that made them disappear from the area. In the 20th century, wild boars and even theibexes, which have been regionally extinct, have made a comeback to the park.[8] The winter villages in the region aroundCastro Laboreiro in Portugal have mostly been abandoned and forests have reclaimed them.[8]Vilarinho da Furna in Portugal is a village submerged by a dam that only reappears duringdroughts.[59] The village ofVatheia,Greece, is largely abandoned, with weeds growing inside some of the towers and even within the church.[60]
TheChernobyl Exclusion Zone has seen the return of previouslyextirpated indigenous species such asboars,lynxes,wolves,brown bears, and 200+ species of bird, in addition to a thriving herd of re-introducedPrzewalski's horses, with streets and buildings being surrounded by overgrowth of vegetation.[61] While wildlife flourishes in the least affected areas,tumors,infertility, and lowerbrain weight are reported in many small animals (includingmice andbirds) living in areas subject to severecontamination.[62] TheRed Forest inPolesia is now home to a wide variety of wildlife, which have thrived in the area due to the lack of human activity.[63] Passive rewilding has occurred in theareas of Bosnia-Herzegovina affected by land mines,minefields in Croatia, and minefields inKosovo, due to unexplodedordnance.[64]
The stringent military control of theIron Curtain left a large corridor across Europe. Parts have never been cleared of landmines, resulting in said areas being closed off to the public, allowing passive rewilding to materialize and naturalbiotopes to form, such as in places like theGerman Green Belt, or the Green Ribbon, which extends from theBaltic Sea to theFranconian Forest, spanning roughly 1,400 kilometers (though it is only 20–100 meters wide in most places). Covering just under 200 square kilometers, about half of the wildlife and plant species within the Belt are classified as threatened or endangered.[25] Some parts of the so-called "Green Ribbon" allowedwolves, bears, lynx, eagles and other wildlife to re-establish themselves. An initiative is underway to protect this wilderness as aEuropean Green Belt.[65] TheZone Rouge, formerFirst World War battlefield located at northeasternFrance, has created unique habitats for wildlife.[66] Nature and vegetation have gradually taken overVillers Abbey inBelgium.[37]Spreepark inBerlin, Germany, is cloaked with lush greenery, with moss covering some of the remaining rides.[67]
The abandoned buildings inAño Nuevo Island inNorthern California are the breeding grounds fornorthern elephant seal, the endangeredSteller's sea lion and thousands of seabirds. TheCatskill Mountain House inOverlook Mountain, New York, is amodern ruin that has been reclaimed by nature.[68]Times Beach, Missouri, a town evacuated and dismantled due todioxin contamination, is now the site ofRoute 66 State Park.Ha Ha Tonka State Park inMissouri andChippewa Lake Park inOhio are involuntary parks featuring, respectively, an incomplete castle and aFerris wheel that have been overtaken by greenery.[37] Areas of theAllegany Indian Reservation (particularly portions of formerNew York State Route 17) have been closed off and left to nature. The formerRocky Mountain Arsenal inDenver was abandoned for years due to contamination from production ofchemical weapons, yet the wildlife returned and the site was eventually turned into awildlife refuge.[69] Similarly, theRocky Flats Plant manufacturing nuclear weapons near Denver was also converted to awildlife refuge following aSuperfund cleanup of nuclear waste.[70]
InPuerto Rico, American colonists, smallholder farmers and herders abandoned the sugar and coffee plantations in the region, and subsequently the trees reclaimed the fields and pastures, with forest cover returning to half (when it was just 9% after plantation).[9]Plymouth, Montserrat in theLesser Antilles is aghost town that features shrubs, ferns and other form of vegetation creeping over buildings destroyed by avolcanic eruption.[24] Passive rewilding has occurred at a church ruin inNuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, Mexico, with solidifiedlava encircling it.[67]Calakmul, in the Mexican state ofCampeche, is formerMayan city that is now invaded by the surrounding rainforest, and thecauseways that cross the swampy land tend to support denser vegetation than the surrounding forest.[71]
Ilha da Queimada Grande in Brazil was inhabited by several lighthouse watchmen, who abandoned it since the 1920s, and is now home to the highly venomousgolden lancehead, bats, lizards, thesouthern house wren andbananaquit.[27] TheBuenos Aires Ecological Reserve in the city ofBuenos Aires, Argentina, which was formed by alandfill of waste material, now has sand and sediment built up and it is developed into a biodiversity sample of the nativeLlanura Pampeana ecosystem.[72]
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