ABSTRACT
What is success in rewilding, from a social perspective? Scholars of policy suggest that the production of success is a claim, not an objective state. This chapter examines procedural approaches to enacting success, since these are the only kinds of success criteria that exist specifically for human dimensions of rewilding or elements of rewilding (e.g. translocation). It then considers the kinds of criteria of success implied or recommended by various approaches to theorising human dimensions of socio-ecosystems or human dimensions of conservation more generally. These are divided into two kinds; approaches that focus on socio-ecological system properties, and approaches that focus on the quality of human–environment, human–wildlife, and human–social interactions. The choice of measure of success from these three broad approaches—procedural, system-level, or interaction-focused—can itself be a process proper to the social and management aspects of rewilding projects, and as such can also be evaluated. The chapter ends with a critique of evaluating success in rewilding, suggesting that measures of success can ironically lead to project failure, but that qualitative judgments embedded in local worldviews can allow projects to evolve and continue. Rather than aiming for successful states, rewilding might focus on helping people cope with and develop psychological and social resiliency to the unknown and the unpredictable.
