Toward Climate-Smart Rewilding: An integrated framework for biodiversity, climate change, and society

Abstract

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for restoring at least 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030, while the IPCC and IPBES emphasize restoration as central to addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. Rewilding, defined as the promotion of self-sustaining, complex ecosystems through minimal human intervention, has emerged as a prominent restoration strategy, yet its climate change mitigation potential is often underexplored. Here, we propose a climate-smart rewilding framework that explicitly integrates biodiversity recovery with climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and socio-economic considerations. Using Europe as a case study, we map potential synergies and trade-offs among carbon sequestration, ecosystem resilience to climate change, wildlife-based tourism opportunities, and the risk of livestock predator conflict. We argue that this integrative framework provides a practical basis for identifying and assessing restoration strategies that deliver multiple benefits across regional and continental scales.