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Contribution short abstract

This research explores meanings of urban rewilding and examines how practices are shaped by socio-ecological-technological systems, through a review of recent literature and walking interviews with individuals managing sites for nature recovery across London boroughs.

Contribution long abstract

‘Urban rewilding’ is attracting the attention of interdisciplinary researchers, environmental organisations and the public, as ecosystem-focused approaches to nature recovery are being recommended in response to environmental and biodiversity change. Despite this growing interest, there are few resources synthesising insights on meanings of the concept provided by recently published sources, and there is limited case study research exploring how it is being approached in practice. This poster presents findings from a hybrid systematic-narrative review of recent academic and grey literature focused on urban rewilding, using reflexive thematic analysis to highlight its current conceptions. I find that they include those focused on reintroducing native species, promoting human-nature coexistence and its consideration as a nature-based solution to improve degraded ecosystems. Building on these findings, I also present initial findings from a second stage of research involving walking interviews with individuals managing local nature sites across London boroughs. This explores how urban rewilding approaches and associated meanings are shaped by the unique socio-ecological-technological systems in which they are implemented. These studies broadly aim to improve knowledge exchange on urban rewilding to inform future best practices.