The return of what never left: animals present in future natures

Abstract

This article presents data collected in ethnographic research begun in 2014 at the Faia Brava Reserve in Portugal. The Faia Brava Reserve has been dedicated to ecological restoration by the association that manages it. This has made the reserve the starting point of an ambitious project for re-naturalizing the western region of the Iberian Peninsula, which foresees the reintroduction of large animal species in Portugal through its integration to the Rewilding Europe network. The article describes some of the steps necessary to the creation of re-naturalization areas, and some of the hypotheses associated to the re-naturalization project in Europe and particularly in Portugal.

Keywords

• re-naturalization
• Rewilding Europe
• Portugal
• Faia Brava
• fauna reinsertion