Publications

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Ryeland, J., Derham, T.T. & Spencer, R.J. Past and future potential range changes in one of the last large vertebrates of the Australian continent, the emu Dromaius novaehollandiae. Sci Rep11, 851 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79551-0"

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Derham, T.T. (2020), Feeding the birds at your table: A guide for Australia Jones, Darryl, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2019, 208 pp. Price AUD$24.99, NZD$29.99 (Paperback; paperback; ebook and ePDF also available). ISBN 9781742236322 . Ecol Manag Restor, 21: 159-159. https://doi.org/10.1111/emr.12406

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Derham, T. and Mathews, F. (2020). Elephants as Refugees. People & Nature.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10070

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Derham, T.T. (2019). In defence of ‘rewilding’ – a response to Hayward et al. (2019). Biological Conservation.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.05.035

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Derham, T.T., Duncan, R.P., Johnson, C.N. & Jones, M.E. (2018). Hope and caution: rewilding to mitigate the impacts of biological invasions.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 373(1761). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0127  

PhD research with DEEP

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The philosophy of rewilding 

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Supervisors: Prof. Barry Brook, Prof. Chris Johnson, Prof. Freya Mathews, Prof. Jeff Malpas

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In Australia, the conversation about rewilding has only just begun. The first tentative references in the scientific literature have revolved around positive management of dingoes and the introduction of Tasmanian devils to mainland Australia. Conversations in Europe and North America are more wide-ranging and rewilding has been variously taken to mean: a policy of preserving core habitat connected with corridors to sustain populations of large carnivores; the introduction of functional analogue species to create Pleistocene-like ecosystems, the introduction of strongly interacting species to restore ecosystems on a landscape scale and the abandonment of agricultural land. Considered carefully, these ideas represent exciting alternative approaches to environmental management in Australia.

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What are the conceptual threads common to these ideas? Advocates for rewilding often rely on implicit assumptions such as the value of wildness, the value of ecosystem function over community composition and the presence of agency and autonomy in nature. Advocacy often includes somewhat ambiguous appeals to past ecological states and passive management through strong intervention. I hope to bring the tools of environmental philosophy to this debate, including established theories of environmental ethics and ontology, to investigate the circumstances under which the ethical justification for rewilding is most reasonable. I’ll also look into what rewilding might mean in Australian contexts and where it holds the most promise.