Introduction: what is rewilding?

Researchers and practitioners active within the field of rewilding have been grappling with a definition for many years. A continual increase in rewilding projects and research, and a time of complex global issues, change and uncertainty, presents a difficult context in which to define a new field. As an introduction to the book, this chapter presents a definition of and guiding principles for rewilding which is based on work by the IUCN CEM’s Rewilding Thematic Group. The chapter also discusses uncertainties, contradictions, and debates within the concept of rewilding, with reference to chapters in the book. Ultimately, the chapter presents rewilding as a movement for change and presents the book as an exploration of the kinds of change that rewilding is looking to promote—ecological, socio-cultural, or systemic—at various levels from local to global, looking inwards at how we undertake research and practice, and outwards at ecosystems, landscapes, and society at large.