ABSTRACT
This chapter considers rewilding as the creation of new natural heritage and follow with examples of how the rewilding initiative prompts local people to reassess and reengage with landscape-based memories and cultural heritage. It argues that rewilding, as an ongoing process of the transformation of the landscape, triggers a reworking of heritage in place. In the case of rewilding, as ‘new natural heritage’ is being developed, there is a shift from preserving what was there to conserving what will become – although it remains unclear what nature and culture will emerge in the transitional landscapes. The chapter focuses on associacao transumancia e natureza as nourishing intergenerational exchange, renewing memories and enhancing distributed place attachment. Cultural heritage is conserved and created even as ‘new natural heritage’ is produced through rewilding. Heritage studies is most commonly considered as a field that focuses itself on the past, and the uses of the past in the present.
