Photo details / credit: Grey wolf, Finland – Grégoire Dubois
We are dedicated to restoring entire ecosystems and protecting biodiversity as a vital, natural solution to the climate emergency. By reintroducing abundant populations of wild animals and fostering ecological resilience, we aim to unlock nature’s full potential to draw down legacy carbon emissions from our atmosphere. Our work addresses both the climate and biodiversity crises while enhancing climate resilience on a global scale.
THE YALE/GRA ACC MODEL
Yale School of the Environment, with support from the Global Rewilding Alliance, with foundational funding from Rewilding Europe and One Earth, have developed a mathematical model that estimates how much carbon can be drawn down by healthy wildlife populations and restored ecosystems. The Yale/GRA model is now being applied to diverse rewilding landscapes around the world, each focusing on wild animal species that play crucial roles in carbon sequestration.
The Yale School of the Environment (YSE)
Since 1900, the YSE has addressed the world’s most critical environmental challenges through research, practice-based scholarship, and public engagement. For more information visit environment.yale.edu.
The Global Rewilding Alliance (GRA)
The GRA is a network of more than 200 rewilding organisations working to restore entire ecosystems on every continent. Their mission is to mainstream rewilding in science, policy and practice by 2030. For more information visit globalrewilding.earth.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND ACC & THE MODEL
Oswald J. Schmitz
Oastler Professor of Population and Community Ecology, in the Yale University School of the Environment – Focusing on the linkage between two important components of natural systems: biodiversity and climate
Os is the Senior Associate Dean for Research and Director of Doctoral Studies, Yale University School of the Environment, as well as being a Member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystems Management (for nature-based solutions and rewilding) and our Science advisor here at the Global Rewilding Alliance.
Matteo Rizutto
Matteo’s research combines empirical and theoretical approaches to expand models of ecosystem functioning. He is an ecosystem ecologist and expands our knowledge of how ecosystems work, ultimately improving how we predict and mitigate the impact of human activities on our planet.
Shawn J. Leroux
Shawn studies the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. He is particularly interested in how organism, energy, and material fluxes among ecosystems (e.g. aquatic-terrestrial ecotone) and up and down food webs impacts the functioning of meta-ecosystems.
Fabio Berzagh
Senior Research Scientist, World Maritime University – studying the role of wild animals (marine and terrestrial) in ecosystems and how their interactions with the environment affects biogeochemical cycles and climate. Fabio works across disciplines including ecology, environmental sciences, and financial economics to quantify and value the ecosystem services produced by animals to finance conservation and help decision making
As a senior researcher at the World Maritime University, part of the United Nations, he studies the ecosystem services of marine organisms. He is also a scientific advisor for Blue Green Future, a private company bringing finance into the protection of nature to apply financial tools to real-life nature-based solutions.
Magnus Sylvén
Director Science-Policy-Practice at the Global Rewilding Alliance – Convening evidence and influencing policy globally
Magnus is an animal ecologist (PhD) by training who has been engaged in the conservation of nature since childhood. Magnus worked professionally for the Swedish Government (research), WWF (International & Sweden), Rewilding Europe and the WILD Foundation, and as independent consultant since 2007. Interested in the interface between conservation, climate and what drives change in society.
Karl Wagner
Managing Director at the Global Rewilding Alliance – Strategy, management partnerships
Karl is a scientist by training and an environmental campaigner. Formerly, Karl worked for many years both at WWF International on global and EU campaigns and for the Club of Rome. For the last 10 years he has contributed frequently to the global campaigns conducted at the WILD Foundation.
Andrew Tilker
Andrew is a scientist (Dr. rer. nat.) by training with a background in the ecology and conservation of large mammals in tropical ecosystems. He is particularly interested in the science and policy behind promoting rewilding to restore healthy ecosystems around the world.
OUR APPROACH
Animating the Carbon Cycle integrates cutting-edge science with traditional ecological knowledge to influence global policy and practice that enhance the natural carbon cycle. We focus on restoring entire ecosystems by rewilding key species, building local community partnerships, and influencing policy to ensure long-term success.
PEER-REVIEWED
SCIENCE
EFFECTIVE
NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS
BRIDGE BETWEEN
BIODIVERSITY & CLIMATE
The important work featured in the pivotal peer-reviewed study Trophic Rewilding Can Expand Natural Climate Solutions published in Nature Climate Change – Volume 13 April 2023 involved the following:
- School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Global Rewilding Alliance
- Wild Foundation, Boulder, CO, USA
- Department of Watershed Sciences and The Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
- Department of Aquatic Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen, the Netherlands
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
- Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, World Maritime University, Malmö, Sweden
- Division of Biological Sciences and Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
- Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden
- Department of Zoology, Centre for African Conservation Ecology, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
- Rewilding Europe, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
- Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland
- Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO) & Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. 16Re:Wild, Austin, TX, USA
- Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany
- School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland
“For too long, policymakers have ignored wild, functional nature with an abundance of wildlife species as a climate solution. In fact, wild animals and their interaction with their environment can be considered as a missing link between biodiversity and climate. Bringing back functional ecosystems is one of the quickest, cheapest and most effective means of stabilising the global climate.”
Karl Wagner – MD of the Global Rewilding Alliance
Photo detail / credit: American beaver
– Niklas Hamann
ORGANISATIONS THAT ARE CURRENTLY APPLYING THE YALE/GRA MODEL
These organisations are pioneers in Animating the Carbon Cycle research:
WWF Netherlands
Thank you to our partners who are making this work possible
ANDRÉ HOFFMANN
BEN GOLDSMITH
FIND OUT MORE
The impact of ACC
The science behind ACC
ACC resource library
SCIENTISTS & ORGANISATIONS BEHIND
This initiative is led by a partnership between the Global Rewilding Alliance and Yale School of the Environment.
This work would not have been possible without our Rewilding Champions. A great thank you to:
Biophilia Foundation, Rewilding Europe, Rewilding Chile, IFAW, André Hoffmann, Ben Goldsmith, Re:wild. We also want to thank One Earth and the WILD Foundation for helping us get started on his important initiative.
Together, this coalition advocates a very clear solution: preserving intact nature and immediately restoring and rewilding functional ecosystems at landscape and seascape scale. You can find out more about us here.