Amplifying edge-awareness: socio-ecological restorative approaches to human-wildlife coexistence

• Pages: 47-87
• Author: Felicity Tepper

AMPLIFYING EDGE-AWARENESS: SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL

RESTORATIVE APPROACHES TO HUMAN-WILDLIFE

COEXISTENCE

Felicity Tepper

Senior Researcher at the School of Regulation & Global Governance

(Australian National University)

1. INTRODUCTION

Human-wildlife coexistence has always been a complex issue, involving

survival, thriving, loss, fear, courage and more, for all beings. Its complexity

reects a relational simultaneity of human existence and other-than-human

existence, shaped by millennia of interactions, adaptation, and conict, a

relationship increasingly strained in our era of rampant industrialisation,

ecocidal pathways and shattered planetary boundaries (Bogert et al., 2022;

Lindgren, 2017; Richardson et al., 2023). The clarion call to change our ways

and pay closer attention to the human-nature relationship rings ercely and

loudly.

Responding to this call involves raising awareness of edge spaces—the

sidelines or margins beyond the locus of mainstream activities where human and

non-human lives intersect—and their relationship with the centre, understood

here as the dominant narratives, systems of governance and management

paradigms. Central to addressing complex and uncertain socio-ecological and

multispecies issues, this simple yet powerful heuristic resonates deeply across

many elds including anti-racism, feminism/ecofeminism, postcolonialism,

urbanisation studies, and environmental justice (e.g., see, Alexandrescu et al.,

2021; Crenshaw, 1991; Haraway, 2016; hooks, 1984; Jax et al., 2018; Plumwood,

1993). By framing coexistence challenges as an interplay of edge and centre

48 FeliCity tepper

spaces that weave back and forth, it becomes possible to cultivate a more

wholistic and integrative understanding of our shared existence.

Awareness of edge spaces invites recognition that while these zones are

often contested and marginalised, they also harbour generative and innovative

possibilities. Far from being mere peripheries, invisibilised, or dismissed as

not worthy of attention, edge spaces can serve as fertile grounds for resilience,

dynamism, diversity, hybridity and productivity (Ortiz-Colin & Hulshof, 2024;

Wall Kimmerer, 2024). For those attuned to their potential, much can be

gained from drawing on the transformative strengths inherent in these spaces

(Valgora, 2018). Realising this potential requires the application of a socio-

ecological lens—an approach that engages with the interconnectedness of

human and ecological systems. This lens acknowledges that harm in one system

reverberates through the other, creating a socio-ecological interplay that

impacts both humans and non-humans. Furthermore, in responding to human-

wildlife coexistence challenges, this chapter calls on restorative practitioners

and scholars to engage more deeply with this socio-ecological intertwinement,

particularly in light of calls to ‘live restoratively’, which entails cultivating

enduring peaceful coexistence (Salm et al., 2021).

Human-wildlife contestations—situations of conict, misunderstandings,

confusion, curiosity, and more—occur at the very intersections of human and

wildlife needs and offer fertile ground for the application of restorative values

and practices, which together I term ‘restorative approaches’. Addressing the

layers of interpersonal and interspecies conict arising from human-wildlife

interactions is urgent and should be one of our highest priorities. I contend that

restorative approaches can provide one valuable pathway to help us iteratively

and collaboratively shape more harmonious, interconnected and informed ways

of coexisting with wildlife and reconnecting with the natural world.

From a felt sense born of my habit of stitching into the wee hours, I have

imagined this chapter as a tapestry. This imagining evokes a weaving from

the edges to the middle and back again, interlacing diverse threads of thought

and inquiry to present a richly textured canvas of what might be possible. In

keeping with this metaphor, the chapter is divided into two major skeins—

Skein One focuses on human-wildlife coexistence, while Skein Two explores

restorative approaches. Throughout the chapter, the strands or plies continue

the numbering sequence, evoking the sense that each thread is part of a

cohesive, woven whole.

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ampliFyinG edGe-aWareneSS

Skein One weaves the rst thread by discussing human-nature relationality,

detailing the problematic positioning of the natural world at the margins

or edges of human society, scholarship, practice, and ways of thinking about

the world.1 To help us better understand the interplay of edges and centres, I

categorise edge spaces in three ways—metaphorical, actual and observational

(observed/observing). The metaphorical category concerns the disconnection

of many human societies from the natural world; the actual category explores

ecological edges; and the observational category invites consideration of non-

human perspectives. Each category interconnects through a socio-ecological

lens, emphasising the interdependence of human and ecological systems and

encouraging a wholistic perspective on the interplay between edge and centre.

The second thread focuses on human-wildlife coexistence as a site of both

conict and regenerative opportunities. I briey illustrate the complex interplay

between edge and centre spaces through two interrelated areas of coexistence:

rewilding and synanthropic species.

In Skein Two, the third thread offers a snapshot of possibilities, with the

hope of inspiring further thought. It explores four strands where restorative

approaches can facilitate positive human-wildlife coexistence outcomes.

This includes the recommendation to embrace multispecies hospitality as a

restorative value—taking us beyond mere tolerance towards actively welcoming

the shared and reciprocal relationships of coexistence. The fourth thread looks

at how environmental restorative justice embodies edge space characteristics

and what this suggests for its future. The chapter concludes with a call for the

amplication of edge-awareness and advocates for restorative approaches as a

respectful, shared pathway towards harmonious coexistence for both current

and future generations.

* * * * * *

1 This discussion primarily targets industrialised, urbanised and high-tech societies that

have inherited and often celebrated dualist traditions of human-nature separation, particularly

inuenced by Cartesian thought (Alberro, 2019; Bogert et al., 2022; Plumwood,1993). While not

all individuals or organisations adopt this perspective or practice, some degree of generalisation

is inevitable, given the state of our planet. These societies span the globe, shaped by high-tech

advancements and aspirations that equate success with ceaseless modernisation and consumerism.

This often goes hand in hand with unexamined, dissonant practices, including the exploitation of

animal kin and environmental resources. In societies that lionise individual success and attribute

failure to personal aws, we often fail to recognise the structural barriers and inequities that

perpetuate environmental degradation and social harm (Bowers-Brown et al., 2019). The emphasis

on human progress, disconnected from the ecological and social systems that sustain us, reinforces

dualism and deepens the separation between human aspirations and the natural world (Plumwood,

1993). In contrast, I acknowledge and respect the enduring, unbroken human-nature relations

maintained over millennia by many Indigenous and traditional societies, whose interconnected

ways of life have been disrupted by such ‘modernising’ forces in recent history.