Paper short abstract:

Starting from the notion that politics both defines and is defined by perceptions of nature (Hastrup 2014), this paper explores the ambiguities surrounding the borders and boundaries of the increasing entanglement of the natural and human in a densely populated part of Europe.

Paper long abstract:

Elaborating on the notion that politics both defines and is defined by perceptions of nature (Hastrup 2014), this paper discusses two diverging developments that occurred in the winter of 2018 regarding two Dutch "rewilding" projects. Firstly, the experimental eco-system and National Park Oostvaardersplassen made national headlines as civil unrest grew regarding its management. From its early gestation, this new-nature experiment in the six-by-ten-kilometer reserve has been a topic of debate among experts. However, controversy reached a new pinnacle this winter, when a substantial group of layman citizens rejected the official policy of 'letting nature run its course', and decided to take matters into their own hands by climbing the fences and feeding starving animals. Secondly, whilst these protests against "animal cruelty masked as wildlife" gained momentum, German-born and GPS-collared wolf "Naya" silently spent a month on Dutch soil, apparently searching out a territory to make her own. The recent rise in sightings of wolves in the country has been heralded by nature conservationists as a sign of the success of rewilding initiatives. Indeed, the rewilding ideal is that wolves as top predators will ultimately "manage" the Oostvaardersplassen. This paper then explores borders and boundaries showing the increasing entanglement of the natural and human in a densely populated part of Europe. While the uproar over the enclosed Oostvaardersplassen turned into a politicized debate on national identity and sensible ecology, wolf Naya embodied the encroaching of new nature, thereby revealing the inevitable porosity of a "national order of things" (Malkki 1995).