\u201cA fixed approach to nature doesn\u2019t really work anymore,\u201d Fabien Qu\u00e9tier, head of landscapes for Rewilding Europe, told Mongabay. He said rewilding is about restoring core ecosystem functions by encouraging the establishment of herbivores to maintain the forests, scavengers to mitigate disease from carcasses, and aquatic mammals like otters and beavers to maintain rivers. The project is currently focusing on ungulates such as wild horses and cattle, historical predators such as wolves and lynx, and vultures.<\/p>\n
One of the reasons Rewilding Europe selected the French Alps for rewilding is that the region already had a head start. In the second half of the 20th century, humans started to reintroduce once-depleted species<\/a> such as roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), a popular hunting species and alpine marmots (Marmota marmota), a main prey species for golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos). Over time, these species attracted the natural comeback of other animals, including keystone species \u2014 those that have an outsized role in maintaining ecosystem balance \u2014 such as the mountain goat, chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), dam-building Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) and gray wolves<\/a> (Canis lupus), an apex predator.<\/p>\n The history of human impact on the landscape goes back to the 1700s, when locals cleared much of the forests for agriculture, livestock grazing and firewood. As the Industrial Revolution kicked off in the 1800s, however, people started moving to cities, vacating the land, Qu\u00e9tier said. Decades of natural regeneration followed, with native tree species growing back on their own, and historical predators such as wolves making their way back over the Alps from Italy by the 1990s.<\/p>\n The natural comeback of the region\u2019s wildlife signaled to locals that it was ripe for a dedicated rewilding effort. So, a group of friends decided to nominate the Dauphin\u00e9 Alps as an official rewilding site in 2019 \u2014 France\u2019s first. After a two-year feasibility study, Rewilding Europe designated a director, started raising funds, and officially launched the project earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt allows us to build on what\u2019s been done already,\u201d Olivier Raynaud, director of the subgroup Rewilding France and leader of the Dauphin\u00e9 Alps project, told Mongabay. \u201cWe\u2019re not starting from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n Roughly 60% of the Dauphin\u00e9 Alps are forested, Raynaud said, and of this, nearly half are public forests. The rest is private property, meaning that for the project to succeed, Raynaud and his team need to collaborate with landowners.<\/p>\n One way they plan to do that is by reintroducing wild horses and cattle, such as Polish konik ponies and Scottish Galloway cows. These herbivores naturally graze the land, keeping plant growth under control, and they also disturb the soil by mixing up nutrients, breaking branches and spreading seeds that will become mature trees several years from now \u2014 without the need for humans to directly plant trees.<\/p>\n The Dauphin\u00e9 Alps are characterized by three main vegetation zones, Qu\u00e9tier said: a lowland altitudinal belt with Mediterranean oaks; a montane belt with beech (genus Fagus), silver firs (Abies alba), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and black pine (Pinus nigra) that stabilize the slopes; and a subalpine belt with Norway spruce (Picea abies) and mountain pine (Pinus uncinata).<\/p>\n Among the region\u2019s most iconic animals is the alpine ibex (Capra ibex), a wild mountain goat with long, curved horns that was hunted nearly to extinction, save for one small population in Italy. The species was brought back to the Dauphin\u00e9 Alps in the late 1980s, to Vercors Regional Natural Park. It\u2019s also considered a keystone species, along with the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), a locally endangered species<\/a> that\u2019s no longer present in the Alps but lives in the nearby Chartreuse mountain range. Rewilding France said it wants to reintroduce lynx within the next couple of years. This medium-sized wildcat is a historical predator, keeping populations of small herbivores in check without the need for hunting. That ensures the herbivores don\u2019t wipe out all the tree species that provide good timber.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lynx populations in the east of France \u2014 they\u2019re not doomed, but nobody\u2019s very optimistic,\u201d Raynaud said. The lynx are threatened by habitat fragmentation, vehicle collisions and genetic bottlenecks, Raynaud said. Models show that the Dauphin\u00e9 Alps would be an ideal place for populations to expand. If they don\u2019t survive in the Dauphin\u00e9 Alps, their overall chances of survival in France are slim, he added.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s the other, more controversial, predator: the wolf.<\/p>\n The biggest challenge, said Gilles Ray\u00e9, an independent scientist who helped conduct the feasibility study, is to get humans to accept the presence of these predators. For farmers, wolves are enemies. Wolves can attack pens of livestock in packs, Ray\u00e9\u2019s research found, which results in significant economic losses for ranchers. With more research, he said, he hopes to provide solutions that are more permanent than paying farmers compensation for killed cattle. Instead, using electric fences and guard dogs can be more effective, Ray\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n Eurasian brown bears (Ursus arctos arctos) are another keystone species that once roamed the French Alps before they were hunted to local extinction in the 1940s. While reintroducing them would help the ecosystem, Rewilding France doesn\u2019t plan to do so because there\u2019s no public support for such a move, Raynaud told Mongabay.<\/p>\n Locals had a similar aversion to the reintroduction of four vulture species in France: the bearded (Gypaetus barbatus), griffon (Gyps fulvus), cinereous (Aegypius monachus) and Egyptian (Neophron percnopterus) vultures. All are now found across the Dauphin\u00e9 Alps, thanks to dedicated captive-breeding efforts, where newborn animals are raised in captivity and later released into the wild to rebuild populations.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/\u00a9\ufe0fLucaMelcarne-Wolf-2.jpg\")
<\/a>A wolf running through snow in the Dauphin\u00e9 Alps, France. Image \u00a9 Luca Melcarne.<\/p>\n![\"Dauphin\u00e9](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/\u00a9\ufe0fRewildingFrance-Alpes-du-Dauphine-Rewilding-Perimeter-3.jpg\")
<\/a>Dauphin\u00e9 Alps rewilding perimeter. Image \u00a9 Rewilding France.<\/p>\n
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