The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times(23)
“So it sounds like adaptation is an essential part of resilience,” I said, “and that some species and not others manage to adapt to a variety of new situations.” I wondered if we would be able to adapt, not just to climate change but also to new ways of living that might slow it down.
“Yes, that’s how evolution has worked for thousands of years. Adapt or perish. The trouble is, we’ve messed things up so much that we often need to intervene to stop the destruction of a habitat or the extinction of a species. And this is where the human intellect plays an important role: many people are using their brains to work with and support nature’s innate desire to survive. There are so many wonderful stories of extraordinary people helping nature restore itself.”
Nurturing Mother Nature
Jane was getting animated and leaned forward in her chair. Using her hands for emphasis, she made the point that we needed to realize that even when a habitat seems utterly destroyed, nature, given time, can reclaim that place, step-by-step. She said the first signs of life would be the really tough pioneer species that would create an environment for other life-forms to move in.
“There are people who study the ways of Mother Nature and copy them when they are trying to restore a landscape that we have destroyed,” she explained.
“A great example is the restoration of a disused quarry, a monstrous five-hundred-acre scar where almost nothing grew near the coast in Kenya. This devastation had been created by the Bamburi Cement company. Interestingly, though, this vast restoration project was initiated not by a group of conservationists but by Felix Mandl, the man whose company had caused the devastation.
“He tasked the company horticulturist, René Haller, to restore the ecosystem. At first it seemed impossible; after searching for days, Haller found only one or two struggling plants sheltering behind the few rocks that had not been crushed. That was all.
“From the very beginning, Haller looked to nature to guide him in his work. He first selected a pioneer tree species most suited to the arid saline conditions—the casuarina, which is widely used in restoration projects. The seedlings took root and began to grow with some fertilizer and the addition of microfungi from the root systems of established trees. The trouble was their needlelike leaves did not decompose on the unrelenting ground, which meant other plants could not start to colonize the area. But then the ever-observant Haller, always wanting to learn from nature’s wisdom, noticed that some beautiful millipedes with shiny black bodies and bright red legs were eagerly chewing up the needles—and their droppings provided just the right substance to create humus. He had hundreds of them collected from the surrounding countryside. The layer of fertile humus enabled other plants to grow.
“After ten years the original trees had grown to thirty meters, and the soil layer was now thick enough to support over one hundred and eighty species of indigenous trees and other plants. Various birds, insects, and other animals began returning to the land, and eventually giraffes, zebras, and even hippopotamuses were introduced. Today it is known as Haller Park and is visited by people from around the world, and it serves as a model for other restoration projects.
“It really is a fabulous story, isn’t it?” Jane concluded. “It’s not just about healing the harm inflicted by industry but about a CEO, way ahead of the greening efforts of companies today, undertaking the restoration just because he believed it was the right thing to do. It’s a great example that even if we have totally destroyed a place, if we give it time and maybe some help, nature will return.”
I wondered what the world would look like if we started that healing work in all the areas we’d desecrated. I had read a report that found that almost all the ecosystems studied recovered within ten to fifty years, with oceans recovering more quickly and forests more slowly. “Are you excited by the movement to ‘rewild’ parts of the world?” I asked Jane.
“I think it is a wonderful movement, absolutely essential,” Jane said. “With so many people on the planet—and the vast majority of animals being humans and our livestock, including our pets—we must set some areas aside for wildlife. And the thing is, this rewilding is really beginning to work!”
Jane told me how, all across Europe, NGOs, governments, and the general public have agreed to protect large areas of forest, woodland, moorland, and other habitats and link them by means of corridors of trees and plants that allow mammals to move from one area to another in safety, something necessary to prevent too much inbreeding. The NGO Rewilding Europe has involved ten different regions across Europe in an ambitious plan that is already protecting a variety of habitats, creating corridors, and protecting or restoring a whole variety of animal species.
Jane’s eyes were lit up with enthusiasm as she talked about these efforts.
“What are some of the animals that are coming back?” I asked.
“Let’s see,” Jane said, starting to tick her fingers. “Well, there’s the elk, and those gorgeously curl-horned ibex, the golden jackal, which is really just a small gray wolf. Oh, and the common wolves, too, which hasn’t always been met with enthusiasm. The Eurasian beavers, the Iberian lynx—a stunning feline that’s still the most endangered cat in the world. Even, in some countries, brown bears. A whole variety of bird species are beginning to flourish such as whooper swans, white-tailed eagles, and griffon and Egyptian vultures. Some of these animals have not been seen in the wild for several hundred years.”