Conservation science
Within the theme Conservation science, we focus on understanding and improving approaches to protect and restore wildlife and their habitats.
Our research includes rewilding, a restoration strategy that seeks to reinstate natural processes and ecosystem dynamics while reducing unsustainable human influences. A key aspect of this work is studying how societal perceptions and narratives shape the success of rewilding projects, for example in Dutch forest landscapes, and how these insights can guide practical conservation efforts.
In addition, we examine the ecology and management of wild mammal populations in human-dominated landscapes. Our projects explore the genetic and phenotypic variation of populations, the factors driving increases or declines, and strategies for their management. By integrating ecological knowledge with social and environmental considerations, this research supports the conservation of biodiversity in increasingly modified landscapes.