Understanding stakeholder decision-making for rewilding and restoration initiatives in the UK

Ecosystems across most of the globe have been significantly altered by human actions. The 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services states that the the great majority of indicators of ecosystems and biodiversity showing rapid decline and calls for transformative changes to restore and protect nature (IPBES 2019).
Among the remedial actions to the current biodiversity crisis being considered are the concepts of rewilding and restoration. Despite a growing popularity of such initiatives, there is still a lack of scientific evidence for decision-making, particularly about the factors that stakeholders take into account for adoption/non-adoption and during implementation, which needs to be addressed in order to deliver the transformative changes called for our lands and seas by the UN Sustainable Development goals.
However, despite a growing number of rewilding and restoration initiatives in the UK, and a wider popularization of ideas related to rewilding, empirical evidence available for decision-making related to rewilding initiatives remains elusive (Petorelli et al. 2017). Particularly, there is a lack of understanding what factors influence whether stakeholders decide to adopt rewilding and restoration management or not, and what influences stakeholders including individual landowners as well as organisations in their decisions on management options (including e.g. choices on species, ecological monitoring, social acceptance) that affect the benefits to society and nature these initiatives can deliver.
The aims of this PhD project are therefore to:
i) investigate stakeholder motivations and identify factors that foster or hinder the adoption of rewilding and restoration approaches, including socio-cultural, economic and ecological considerations and
ii) to study empirically how stakeholder decision-making is linked to the implementation of rewilding and restoration initiatives and their ability to deliver a range of ecosystem services.
To do so, we propose a comparative case study approach across diverse case settings in the UK. Within the case studies we propose to investigate both the decision-making processes of stakeholders, including the reasons for (non-)adoption of particular management approaches (incl. e.g. the use of ecological monitoring approaches to guide decision-making), as well as the ecosystem services and disservices delivered by the rewilding and restoration initiatives. The methods will be based on social science methodologies, including participatory observation, open and semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with different stakeholder groups in a variety of rewilding project settings.
We would expect the PhD applicant to become orientated with social science research methodologies and public engagement practices and techniques. Throughout the 3.5 year project, the PhD candidate will undertake a training programme provided by the QUADRAT DTP that develops a range of transferable skills. The training includes field courses, quantitative and advanced skills training (e.g. statistics), an internship and a Chartered Management Institute certificate in strategic management and leadership. This project will develop skills in environmental social science focused on rewilding and restoration and will be ideally suited for candidates with a background in geography, environmental management, conservation biology or a related discipline. Experience in participatory research methods, including interviewing and moderating focus group discussions is not essential, but will be beneficial.