Presentation short abstract

Based on over a decade of experience in social consultation on wildlife restoration and rewilding projects in inland areas of Portugal, different positions of the social actors inhabiting these territories will be presented from an analytical and critical perspective.

Presentation long abstract

Like other European rural and economically marginal regions, inland depopulated areas in Portugal have undergone significant economic and social changes. These have led to the decline of agricultural activity, land abandonment and consequent processes of passive rewilding that are not always conducive to generating biodiversity. The conservationists’ desired resurgence often requires assistance, including reintroductions of species, which might face resistance from local communities.

In Portugal, the Iberian lynx has already been reintroduced, and recent rewilding initiatives in the Centre region have focused on improving coexistence with Iberian wolves in an enlarged area and on proposals to reintroduce the ibex. Our team’s involvement in these processes through social consultation studies for over a decade provides robust data on the socioeconomic dimensions of reintroduction and rewilding processes, particularly local communities' perspectives, enabling an in-depth discussion of their political contours.

These studies have entailed semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders—including livestock breeders, hunting managers, local authorities, conservation practitioners, and nature tourism promoters—to capture their positions regarding potential reintroductions and coexistence, alongside local knowledge, emotions, and beliefs. Additionally, observation was carried out of local practices and, in the case of lynx reintroduction, of the meetings with stakeholders organised by the state administration.

The complexity of the relationship between humans and these large predators and herbivores, shaped by their insertion into a market economy, emerge as a central and transversal conclusion in our research. These findings further prompt reflection on a core question: what, ultimately, defines the wild of the rewilding—and for whom?