Wilding Grasslands: wilding as nature-based opportunity for grassy ecosystems under diverse land tenure systems

Grassy ecosystems cover about 40% of land on Earth and hold significant opportunities for Naturebased Solutions (NbS) because of their unique biodiversity, large and resilient carbon stores, and importance for hydrological cycles and livelihoods.

However, they are among the least protected ecosystems and only few NbS are tailored towards grassy ecosystems, mostly in temperate, northern hemisphere systems.

With a focus on Africa, we aim to develop wilding as an NbS that leads to synergies for biodiversity, people and climate change mitigation in an inclusive, participatory way.

We will develop wilding scenarios through a transdisciplinary approach, mixing methods from humanities, social and natural science, in a living lab in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, with strong environmental and socio-economic contrasts.

Building on existing wilding interventions by key NGO collaborators, we will work with diverse local stakeholders to develop relevant, credible and inclusive wilding scenarios and analyze synergies and trade-offs of these scenarios for biodiversity, climate change mitigation, water and livelihood values.

We will also investigate drivers and barriers for wilding and explore ways to mitigate these.

We expect to generate impact locally and transnationally by upscaling our African-centred NbS and living lab approach via diverse knowledge utilization activities. This will broaden the portfolio of NbS on the African continent and inspire innovative NbS approaches elsewhere.