Community Attitudes
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Improve community attitudes towards rewilding
Data collection in progress
Iberian Highlands
Spain
Problem: Over recent decades, the Iberian Highlands landscape has suffered from a decline in rural goods and services, lack of investment and limited employment opportunities. In addition, rewilding is still poorly understood nationally and in the local community, which makes it more difficult to build support for the project.
Action: The Iberian Highlands aims to build a new narrative and wider vision for this landscape, via the implementation of rewilding actions, the provision of business support, and positive communication about the landscape and its future. Activities will include educational activities with schools, meetings with local stakeholders, the development of local partnerships, and positive news stories to be shared on local media.
Indicator: Attitudes among local communities about rewilding and the rewilded landscape.
Cinereous vulture, a species being released as part of the project. Photo: Rewilding Spain, Terra Naturalis.
Tauros, a species being released as part of the project. Photo: Rewilding Spain.
Methods
This indicator aims to elucidate the perceptions, practices, discourses and local representations present in the landscape and to understand attitudes towards the Rewilding Spain initiative. Both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches are being applied.
The qualitative part of the study consisted of 22 interviews with stakeholders from the landscape. Two focus group interviews were also organized to explore and understand the main visions for the landscape.
The quantitative part of the study involved 155 surveys carried out in person and by telephone throughout the Iberian Highlands. The purpose of these surveys was to obtain quantitative data describing the visions and assessments of the local people in relation to the landscape, its management and the rewilding initiatives.
Across both types of data collection, attempts were made to balance participants in terms of gender, age and sector, and to achieve diverse representation from the three regions of the landscape (Molina-Alto Tajo, Serranía de Cuenca and Sierra de Albarracín – Montes Universales).
The first surveys, to establish baseline values, were carried out between May and September 2023.
Przewalski’s horses grazing in a ‘dehesa’ (agrosylvopastoral landscape) of Portuguese oak (Quercus faginea). This breed is being released as part of the project.
Results
From the 155 responses to the quantitative surveys, 84 were from males, 69 from females and 2 from other. 57 surveys were recieved from Molina-Alto Tajo, 55 from Serranía de Cuenca and 43 from Albarracín-Montes Universales. Twenty five respondents worked in the primary sector (e.g. farming, forestry) and 38 worked in the tertiary sector (services e.g. hospitality, tourism), with the remaining 92 respondents working in other sectors. There were differences between regions in terms of knowledge of rewilding (Fig. 1), which is indicative of the fact that until now the project has worked primarily in the Molina-Alto Tajo region, and as of 2024 will now be expanding their work into the other two regions.
Figure 1.
Of the participants that have heard of rewilding, they were asked whether their perception of it was positive, negative or neutral. Figure 2 shows the breakdown of responses, indicating that at the start of the project, respondents that are younger, female, or who work in tertiary sectors such as tourism have more positive views of rewilding.
Figure 2.
Lastly, positive perceptions of rewilding varied based on specific rewilding themes. The greatest number of respondents were positive about scavengers in the landscape, particularly cinereous and bearded vultures, as well as forest reserves and removing dams from rivers. They were least positive about the presence of wolves (Fig. 3).
Figure 3.
From the interviews and focus groups, several key concerns emerged. These included depopulation and its economic, social and environmental effects; tensions between the local community and external decision-makers; and lack of local economic opportunities, with tourism an insufficiently reliable replacement.
Perceptions of the environment by local residents varied depending on their relationship with it, with job type contributing to whether they tended to view it as an economic resource or a space for contemplation and minimal intervention. Perceptions of rewilding also varied, although most residents were unfamiliar with the term, which generated confusion and sometimes distrust. Some aspects were seen as positive, such as fire prevention and landscape conservation which might attract tourism, but introduction of species like the wolf or ecological replacements for the extinct aurochs were met with scepticism and fears around farming. The study highlighted that local residents prefer solutions that promote development “from within” the territory, including support for local livestock and agriculture, encouraging locally driven tourism projects, restoring native species, and maintaining traditional land management practices.
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