Rewilding en restauratie-ecologie; een ecologisch en paleoecologisch perspectief

Rewilding receives much attention in current ecology and nature conservation. In palaeoecological studies the recognition of vegetation composition (a baseline) just before a new type of disturbance impacted the landscape is already for many years subject of studies with a local to regional focus. A good understanding how the pre-anthropogenic landscape developed to its present degraded status over time is essential to further develop our environment for the needs of the next century and to protect it to devastating expressions of global warming. The book ‘Rewilding in Nederland’ (Arts et al. 2022) presents the ecological scope, while the 2022 issue of PAGES Magazine shows a palaeoecological view. Both publications are a plea for introducing natural mechanisms in nature conservation and rewilding. As The Netherlands needs a reshape to tackle current problems in climate change, nitrogen deposition and the building environment, there is place for a new academic education programme ‘Future Environmental Studies’. Academic studies, such as landscape ecology, historical ecology, physical geo­graphy, palaeoecology, population biology and nature conservation, combined with more technical studies such as, geology, hydrology and economics could contribute to a newly designed academic curriculum.