With the stated aim to help rewilding “remain globally relevant,” Derham et al. (2025) attempt to align the rewilding movement with Indigenous-led land care. They do this by seeking to fit an alternative meaning for the word “wild” as “self-willed.” However, phonetically similar in modern English, these words have distinct Proto-Indo-European roots and there is no etymological basis for this shift

The 2018 arrival of African swine fever (ASF) in China was followed by reports of wild pig deaths across most countries in Southeast Asia. However, the magnitude and duration of population-level impacts of ASF on wild pig species remain unclear. To elucidate the spatiotemporal spread of ASF in the region for native pig species, we gathered qualitative information on wild pig population dynamics in

Community‐based natural resource management is a common strategy for conserving biodiversity, but little is known about how such initiatives can scale appropriately and widely. We interviewed 80 experts across 5 widely adopted community‐based initiatives (in Chile, Nepal, Namibia, Madagascar, and Fiji) to understand their perspectives on the drivers of adoption and spread. We used general elimination

The Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) marked a renewed commitment to addressing the global biodiversity crisis. This framework of four goals and 23 interim targets is intended to guide and accelerate conservation efforts over the next 25 years and is more ambitious than its predecessor, the Aichi 2020 targets. However, the pursuit of multilateral agreements is dependent upon national pledges, and

Unsustainable wildlife trade is a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Effective wildlife trade governance is critical for conservation and requires international cooperation and coordination to regulate an industry valued at hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Yet, due to increasing polarization over consumptive wildlife use, certain countries have become disenfranchised by the Convention

In Asia, carnivore conservation is often focused on charismatic big cats. Opportunities to conserve the entire carnivore guild are frequently overlooked by channeling conservation and mitigation efforts into single‐species conservation. We synthesize experiences across Asia to explore these challenges and propose mitigations to maximize conservation benefits for the entire carnivore guild. Seven challenges

Dynamic management is intended to mitigate the impacts of human activities on wildlife when and where the activities overlap with at‐risk species. Amid an ever‐growing maritime industry, we researched the performance of mobile underwater passive acoustic gliders as near real‐time monitoring assets for the purpose of whale‐vessel strike mitigation through dynamic management. Across 580 glider survey

The conservation of crop genetic diversity by farmers has been well studied, but little has been documented for farmed fish. Here, we show how indigenous farmers conserve the genetic diversity of a farmed fish species—the common carp (Cyprinus carpio), locally known as paddy field carp (PF‐carp)—within the paddy ecosystem. The PF‐carp have been cocultured with rice in paddy fields (i.e., rice‐fish

Massive infrastructure development impacts ecologically important, culturally iconic, and economically vital populations of megaherbivores in East Africa. The seven member countries of the East African Community (EAC) have multiple hypercomplex road, rail, and port projects planned that will cross essential habitats for elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus populations, all but one of which

Adaptive management (AM) remains underused in conservation, partly because optimization‐based approaches require real‐world problems to be substantially simplified. We present an approach to AM based in management strategy evaluation, a method used largely in fisheries. Managers define objectives and nominate alternative adaptive strategies, whose future performance is simulated by integrating ecological

Environmental stewardship is often invoked as a net social good and an approach for achieving equitable and sustainable conservation outcomes, but it is rarely defined explicitly in management settings, and conflicting definitions have proliferated. This lack of consensus can influence conservation outcomes in several ways. Conflict can arise between stakeholders with different definitions of stewardship;

Derham, T. T., F. Mathews, and C. N. Johnson. 2025. “Rewilding and Indigenous Community-Led Land Care.” Conservation Letters 18, no. 1: e13090. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.13090 Acknowledgments were included in the original submission but were missing from the final manuscript. Acknowledgments should read as follows: The authors would like to thank A. Sculthorpe and R. Swain for comments on the manuscript

Wildlife trade is a key threat to global biodiversity, involving thousands of species and millions of individuals. Global research and policy attention on international wildlife trade has increased in recent years and is represented in key global policy frameworks (e.g., Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework). Yet the dominant focus of research and discussion is on illegal wildlife trade and

The conversion of natural habitats to impervious surfaces in cities affects biotic and abiotic attributes of urban ecosystems. However, detailed information on the gradual influence of impervious surfaces on reproductive output is lacking. Using 5 years of nestbox‐breeding great tit and blue tit data collected across various habitat types within and outside a Central–Eastern European capital city,

Reducing human–wildlife conflict is critical for global biodiversity conservation and supporting livelihoods in landscapes where people and wildlife co‐occur. Interventions intended to reduce conflicts and their negative outcomes are diverse and widespread, yet there is often a dearth of empirical evidence regarding effectiveness, particularly at appropriate spatiotemporal scales. We investigate an

Global conservation targets aim to expand protected areas and maintain species’ genetic diversity. Whether protected areas capture genetic diversity is unclear. We examined this question using a global sample of nuclear population‐level microsatellite data comprising genotypes from 2513 sites, 134,183 individuals, and 176 mammal and marine fish species. The genetic diversity and differentiation of

Climate change will have profound and unexpected impacts on biodiversity in the future. These impacts could potentially be mitigated through adaptive and responsive conservation planning, but it remains unclear how adaptation opportunities can be harnessed through careful planning of present‐day activities. Here, we show that the use of flexible conservation strategies that exploit opportunities for

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In the 1990s, pioneers of rewilding described a bold vision of wilderness connected at the continental scale, with thriving populations of large, wild animals. Much of the resulting discourse has emphasized uninhabited places or has promoted a “hands‐off” approach to environmental management. This clashes with many Indigenous (e.g., First Nations) perspectives and has made rewilding largely irrelevant

The environmental and social sustainability of seafood is jeopardized by rampant illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Regulations implemented by fishing countries and Regional Fisheries Management Organizations are insufficient to combat illegal fishing; complementary efforts from the consumer end of the supply chain are essential. Despite the growing reliance on imported seafood globally

Global peatlands store more carbon than all the world's forests biomass on just 3% of the planet's land surface. Failure to address mounting threats to peatland ecosystems will jeopardize critical climate targets and exacerbate biodiversity loss. Our analysis reveals that 17% of peatlands are protected globally—substantially less than many other high‐value ecosystems. Just 11% percent of boreal and

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is a critical tool in global conservation, providing essential information on species' conservation status worldwide. However, the current assessment process faces several challenges, including data gaps, standard inconsistencies across taxonomic groups, and a limited assessor pool. Data gaps are common for many taxa, particularly those more difficult to observe

The western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) is classified as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with an 80% decrease decline between 1990 and 2014. A major threat to its survival is the illegal trade in live chimpanzees (ITLC), a highly organized criminal activity with national and international scope. Here, we compile the existing information on

The cryptic nature of wildlife crimes challenges the detection and implementation of effective prevention and prosecution measures. Allocating often limited resources will benefit from increasing detectability through evidence‐informed integration of sentinel GPS‐tracked species. We illustrate this by analyzing the spatial use of 25 GPS‐tracked griffons and 26 reintroduced bearded vultures with anti‐poison

With the Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the international community has committed to retaining ecosystems of high ecological integrity. Monitoring progress toward this target requires the identification of suitable indicators, but these are not universally recognized. In this study, we analyze available global maps of terrestrial ecological integrity and evaluate their representation

Trees on farms not only provide agricultural and environmental benefits but can also contribute to food security. We use panel data covering a 10‐year period from the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) to examine the effects of trees on farms on people's dietary quality in rural Malawi. We found that having on‐farm trees leads to higher and more diverse fruit and vegetable consumption

Maintaining ecological connectivity is crucial for biodiversity, yet effectively managing interconnected areas through actor collaboration is challenging. This study examines collaboration through social–ecological fit in interconnected aquatic “blue” and terrestrial “green” areas, encompassing natural and semi‐natural elements, in human‐dominated landscapes. Combining species distribution models and

Banning wildlife trade is an immediate measure to protect species from overexploitation. Yet, regulations on the harvest and use of natural resources might have unintended side effects beyond the policy goals. Few causal inference studies have investigated the consequences of wildlife trade bans. We use the synthetic difference‐in‐differences causal inference approach based on an 11‐year online trade

Globally, hundreds of thousands of rangers patrol protected areas every day. The data they collect have immense potential for monitoring biodiversity and threats to it. Technologies like SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool), which facilitate the management of ranger‐collected data, have enhanced this potential. However, based on our experience across diverse use cases and geographies, we have

Conservation investments do not operate within a zero‐sum paradigm, but instead provide opportunities for co‐benefits across sustainable development and conservation goals. Recognizing the interconnectedness of conservation efforts within socioenvironmental systems can amplify support for conservation actions, ultimately creating additional co‐benefits across the social, ecological, and economic sectors

Conservation AI—the deliberate application of artificial intelligence technology to achieve conservation goals—has great potential to boost productivity, make existing conservation actions more efficient, and enable entirely new areas of activity. However, it also comes with risks, including AI being used by bad actors; high material demand for energy, land, and water; biases in training datasets;

Humans have caused pervasive wildlife habitat loss by transforming most of the Earth's terrestrial surface, while unexpectedly limited species have consequently gone extinct. The concept of time-lagged extinction (i.e., an extinction debt) potentially explains this paradox, but the starting time of the process is difficult to estimate. Herein, by projecting extinction risk backward onto human perturbation

Evaluating the effectiveness of freshwater protected areas (FPAs) is crucial for improving their performance, yet evidence remains limited. Using remote sensing and field surveys from 2001 to 2017, we examined FPA coverage, their efficacy in preventing species decline and habitat deterioration, and strategies to enhance FPA effectiveness for the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena

Horseshoe crabs are unique living fossils that have remained almost unaltered through 400 million years of global change. They face rapid worldwide declines under increasing anthropogenic pressure. Using comprehensive geographic and genomic sampling combined with approaches that integrate DNA with environmental and climatic datasets, we assessed the population genetic structure, demographic histories

Typically, Western Science approaches the study of complex systems by examining the component parts outside of their contextual relationships. In contrast, Indigenous people continue to advocate the need for land and seascape approaches that include all aspects of life, particularly the special relationship between Kin (people), Country, and Knowledge. Globally, Indigenous people are lobbying for environmental

Much received wisdom in the conservation literature is that individual connections across community boundaries undercut natural resource management. However, when multiple communities access the same resource, these long-distance relationships could generate interdependence and trust to motivate engagement in collective action to manage the resource. To test this, we interviewed 1317 people in 28 fishing

Many alien species are safe in their native ranges, but some are threatened. This creates a conundrum for conservation and invasion science. We analyzed the distributions, introduction pathways, threats, and conservation strategies of threatened mammals with alien populations globally. We reassessed their hypothetical IUCN Red List category including the alien part of the range. Among 230 alien mammals

Oyster reefs are often referred to as the temperate functional equivalent of coral reefs. Yet evidence for this analogy was lacking for the European native species Ostrea edulis. Historical data provide a unique opportunity to develop a robust definition for this ecosystem type, confirm that O. edulis are large-scale biogenic reef builders, and assess its current conservation status. Today, O. edulis

Tropical seagrass ecosystems are globally imperiled due to overfishing and anthropogenic disturbances. Sustaining the services they provide will require managing resilience, particularly with increased volatility from climate change. Portfolio theory is touted as a mechanism to increase resilience in ecosystems because it takes advantage of temporal volatility in local production dynamics to increase

The harvest and sale of wildlife can drive species to extinction when consumers are willing to pay high prices for the last harvested individuals of a very rare species, a phenomenon known as the anthropogenic Allee effect (AAE). Because demand for rarity is an inherent human desire, the AAE has the potential to affect a wide range of exploited species across several geographic regions. Here, we assess

Indigenous lands are increasingly recognized for their critical role in biodiversity conservation. However, concerns persist about the sustainability of hunting practices within these territories. This study investigates the long-term impact of Indigenous hunting practices on wildlife populations in the Cofán territory of Zábalo, Ecuador. We employed line transect surveys to estimate wildlife densities

Incentives are a widely used tool for addressing deforestation and are often implemented as collective contracts. Local institutions are crucial to the solution of collective action problems associated with forest conservation, but we still have little knowledge of how to encourage institutional creation through policy. Since collective contracts do not eliminate freeriding incentives, we argue that

It is widely accepted that populations of terrestrial predators sometimes contain “problem individuals” that repeatedly attack humans, yet this phenomenon has never been demonstrated in sharks. Here, we present photographic and genetic evidence of individuals in populations of tiger Galeocerdo cuvier and oceanic whitetip Carcharhinus longimanus sharks that (1) demonstrated atypical behavior compared

Lead (Pb) poisoning is a significant threat to Aotearoa New Zealand's endangered kea (Nestor notabilis), an avian species important to Māori. Historically, exposure was thought to be from lead-containing building materials; however, recent field observations suggest lead-based ammunition as an additional source. We used stable lead isotopes to investigate the sources of lead to kea. Comparing 207 Pb/206 Pb

Empirical data are essential to assess the outcomes of management decisions in the context of adaptive management. We used flyway-level population indices of a declining game bird to assess population changes after introducing hunting management measures as part of the European Union (EU)-wide Adaptive Harvest Management mechanism (AHMM). In one flyway, a full hunting ban led to the start of population

Environmental practitioners often develop communications and behavior change interventions that conceptualize individuals as consumers or as other limited, standalone personae. This view neglects the role of conservation audiences as social beings with complex social relationships and networks, potentially resulting in lost opportunities to increase the effectiveness of conservation interventions.

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are a cornerstone of 21st-century area-based conservation targets. In tropical KBAs, biodiversity is potentially at high risk from climate change, because most species reside within or beneath the canopy, where small increases in temperature can lead to novel climate regimes. We quantify novelty in temperature regimes by modeling hourly temperatures below the forest canopy

Collaborative conservation interventions based on engagement with local communities are increasingly common, especially for large carnivores that negatively impact people's livelihoods and well-being. However, evaluating the effectiveness of large-scale community-based conservation interventions is rarely done, making it problematic to assess or justify their impact. In our study focused on snow leopards

For centuries, humans have intentionally moved species around the world, and such actions have rarely been laudable from conservation perspectives. The notion that introduced populations of cold-adapted species hold conservation value despite their non-native status remains controversial. Many such populations exist as a legacy of humans moving wildlife to novel environments with little true consideration

Promoting resilience is highly relevant to preserving biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. For coral reefs, parrotfish protection emerged as a mainstream action for reversing the degradation experienced by these systems. The rationale is that restoring their populations will increase grazing activity and reinforce control of fast-growing macroalgae, facilitating coral cover recovery. A lack of a

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a cornerstone of marine conservation efforts, with the potential to protect biodiversity and provide socioeconomic benefits. We quantified the effect of MPAs on fishing outcomes, economic activities, and material living standards in 24 coastal villages of Tanzania over two decades. We accessed original data from a study conducted in 2003 that found no effect of MPAs

Linder et al. (2024) recently argued that protecting red colobus deserves priority attention, serving as flagships of African tropical forest conservation strategies. We appreciate and support the authors’ efforts to build a plan to conserve red colobus and their habitats. In this correspondence, we provide a complementary perspective, arguing that conservation attention should be extended to diverse

A focus of sea turtle management has been reducing bycatch in commercial fisheries, but sustainable harvest for consumption is also an important objective in many nations. Identifying how much different fisheries contribute to turtle mortality could help focus limited management resources. We estimated national scale turtle catches for two fisheries in the Solomon Islands: a small-scale reef fishery

To fulfill their conservation potential and provide safeguards for biodiversity, marine protected areas (MPAs) need coordinated research and monitoring for informed management through effective evaluation of ecosystem dynamics. However, coordination is challenging, often due to knowledge gaps caused by inadequate access to data and resources, compounded by insufficient communication between scientists

Wild birds have experienced unprecedented, near-global mass mortalities since 2021, driven by outbreaks of high-pathogenicity avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5N1 lineage 2.3.4.4b. Managing this panzootic requires identification of transmission pathways. We investigated potential HPAIV transmission via kleptoparasitism (food theft) by examining the distribution, behaviors, and movements of two globally

Land use is both a major cause of the biodiversity crises and a potential solution to it. Decisions about land use are made in complex social–ecological systems, yet conservation research, policy, and practice often neglect the diverse and dynamic nature of land use. A deeper integration of land system science and conservation science provides major opportunities in this context, through a transfer

In many countries, complex environmental problems such as biodiversity decline are regulated at the national level by a disparate range of laws and nonstatutory policy instruments variously described by terms including plans, strategies, guidelines, statements of intent, and/or incentives. Such instruments are often grouped together by conservation policymakers and scientists under the umbrella term

Invasive species are a major cause of biodiversity loss and are notoriously expensive and challenging to manage. We developed a decision-analytic framework for evaluating invasive species removal strategies, given objectives of maximizing eradication probability and minimizing costs. The framework uses an existing estimation model for spatially referenced removal data—one of the most accessible types