Despite representing a very small fraction of the living biomass on Planet Earth, large wildlife species have an incredible impact on ecosystems. We are living in an increasingly defaunated planet, where large wildlife species are vanishing from our world, and subsequently the critical role they play in the regulation of ecosystems and the services these provide to sustain human societies.
In this talk, post-doctoral researcher Nacho Villar from the NIOO-KNAW Netherlands Institute for Ecology will present alongside professor in Rewilding Ecology, Liesbeth Bakker.
Having gained new insights from studying wildlife and ecosystem interactions in the tropical forests of Brazil, Nacho is now back in Europe producing new, cutting-edge research on rewilding. Liesbeth is Europe’s first professor of rewilding and studies rewilding as a novel ecosystem restoration technique at the NIOO-KNAW Netherlands Institute for Ecology.
Nacho and Liesbeth will discuss how large wildlife can help us to fight against climate change in different regions of the world, from tropical forests to tundra ecosystems, discussing the current state-of-the-art about some ecological processes through which large wildlife can contribute towards climate change mitigation and adaptation.