Restoration Success Stories: Ten Inspiring Examples of Restoration Done Right
ReWilding and restoration
Welcome to the ‘great turnaround’.
Today we’re witnessing how a select number of species are making a comeback from extinction, to thrive once again.
This article discusses species and environmental success stories. If there was one key takeaway for you it would be to notice that there exists a golden thread running through almost every example of restoration… it would be to notice the drivers that protect and restore important biodiverse ecosystems.
With that said, here are our top 10 inspiring examples of successful restoration:
1. How Operation Rhino Saved the Southern White Rhino
How’s this… every single Southern White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum) alive today originated from one place (Hlulhluwe-Imfolozi National Park) and a population of +40 individuals.
Dubbed Operation Rhino, the dramatic rescue of the species from outright extinction is an outstanding story of success and achievement pioneered by the famed conservationist Dr Ian Player.
In Southern Africa, the arrival of European hunters in the early 19th century marked disaster for the region's indigenous wildlife. Rhinoceros populations plummeted and by the early 1940s, with rangers having found no sign of both the Black and White rhino - they were declared regionally extinct in the greater Kruger National Park.
Unethical and uncontrolled hunting practices as well as habitat destruction led to this micro-extinction. This period could well have marked the end for both species, thankfully for all of us, isolated pockets of wilderness still provided sanctuary for small but functional populations.
The most important of these areas were the protected areas of Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Hlulhluwe-Imfolozi National Park which had certainly become the last bastion for the Southern White Rhino in particular.
In 1895, colonial conservationists were able to convince authorities to establish Africa’s first protected conservation area, the Umfolozi Junction Reserve (today known as Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park) with the specific intent of saving the White rhino. Here, the White rhino was declared to be royal game and finally received legal protection from hunting.
The White rhino mainly was safe in this small pocket and by the 1950s, the population had grown to over 400. But it was a slow growth, and they survived in only a fraction of where the species once lived.
In what must be recognised as one of the greatest conservation achievements of all time, from 40 existing Southern White Rhino in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park in the 1940s, the ‘great turnaround’ achieved a 1000% growth rate in the population by the 1960s.
In the late 1950s, conservationist Ian Player launched “Operation Rhino,” translocating groups of White rhinos to protected areas throughout their historic range. He knew that expanding their range outside of Umfolozi would give them the best long-term chance for recovery and accelerate their growth even more
From this base of 400 Southern White Rhino, the protected areas in the region were repopulated, saving the Southern White Rhino from extinction.
Today there are 19,600-21,000 Southern White Rhinos on the African continent. The majority (98.8%) of the southern white rhinos occur in just four countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.
Although still under constant threat from poaching, the white rhino population is vastly more stable.
🐼 Restoration Focus: The Southern White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum)
📍 Where: Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park
🎯 Method / Approach: Captive Breeding
✏️ Who: Conservationist Ian Player and previous conservationists who convinced authorities to establish Africa’s first protected conservation area: Umfolozi Junction Reserve (today known as Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park)
2. Giant Pandas, the Poster Child of Restoration
The icon Fiffy, WWF’s panda is literally the poster child of restoration.
And how can you not just love a panda?
The 1980s marked a significant period of habitat loss for the giant panda, plummeting the population to just over 1,200.
In response to this declining population, the Chinese government enforced the Wildlife Protection Law in 1988, ensuring endangered animals – which the giant panda was listed as at the time – were adequately protected from persecution and human interference.
In 1998, a ban was enforced on logging – a practice detrimental to the habitat of giant pandas – in the hopes of further increasing numbers.
Creating new reserves and linking up existing panda populations are key to the species' future. The Chinese authorities have increased the number of panda reserves to 67 in recent years, but this still leaves around 1/3rd of wild pandas outside protected areas.
The Chinese government, in partnership with WWF, has also developed bamboo corridors to link pockets of forest, allowing the pandas within them to move to new areas, find more food and meet more potential breeding mates.
Between 2003 and 2015, the giant panda population – which only lives in temperate bamboo forests – increased by 16.8% to a total of 1,864 pandas. Both in the wild and in captivity, giant panda populations are starting to recover – but are still far from secure.
Today, the rescue of the much-beloved giant panda from complete annihilation to a population of over 2,000 seems like great news. China spent many years and resources in restoring its bamboo forests, on which the pandas are entirely dependent for food and habitat.
And yet, despite the 2016 downgrading of this bear species from endangered to threatened, BBC reports that climate change will likely wipe out at least one-third of its newly won living spaces within the next 80 years.
🐼 Restoration Focus: The giant panda
📍 Where: Temperate bamboo forests in China
🎯 Method / Approach: Habitat management
✏️ Who: Chinese Government & WWF
3. Kavango Zambezi - the world's largest conservation area
The world's largest conservation area, KAZA.
KAZA - not the strip, it’s the Kavango Zambezi - a transfrontier park.
It’s definitely a frontier, as this Transfrontier Conservation Area is roughly the size of Spain (actually larger by 15,000km 🤯).
On August 18th 2011, the governments of the republics of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe signed it into existence.
From Victoria Falls to the Okavango Delta, KAZA has it all… and we have Peace Parks to thank for this vision.
Hows this… Peace Park’s founding patrons were Nelson Mandela, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Dr Anton Rupert.
I know of no political movement, no philosophy, and no ideology which does not agree with the peace parks concept as we see it going into fruition today. It is a concept that can be embraced by all. In a world beset by conflict and division, peace is one of the cornerstones of the future. Peace parks are building blocks in this process, not only in our region but potentially the entire world. - Nelson Mandela, 1997
Peace Parks would go on to start a global movement - over the last two decades the global number of transfrontier parks has grown rapidly to over 188 internationally adjoining protected areas (with at least 818 individual sites).
🦏 Restoration Focus: Biodiversity Restoration
📍 Where: Southern Africa - Republics of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe
🎯 Method / Approach: Partnership, transboundary conservation and research
✏️ Who: Peace Parks Foundation
4. 2000 Southern White Rhinos, ReWilded
Here is one of the most unique rewilding stories.
Possibly one of the most impactful for white rhinos too.
African Parks has stepped in as the new owner of the world's largest private captive rhino breeding operation, “Platinum Rhino”, a 7,800-hectare property in the North West province of South Africa.
This land purchase included 2,000 southern white rhinos, representing up to 15% of the world's remaining wild population! You can read more here.
🦏 Restoration Focus: Rhino ReWilding / Reintroduction
📍 Where: Johannesburg-based farm. Rewilding projects across Africa
🎯 Method / Approach: Unique funding opportunity
✏️ Who: African Parks
5. The Comeback Kid: Whales make an infamous turnaround from Ecological Collapse
There exists a missing link in the climate agenda.
The benefits that whales, our ocean's invisible forests and restoring wildlife populations have on the climate.
Revitalising natural ecological processes is a necessary step to help adapt and mitigate the effects of a changing climate.
Otherwise, what is the point of being carbon neutral, if it’s not to support humans and wildlife?
Many whale species made a comeback from near extinction thanks to the banning of whaling in many countries by 1969 and an international cessation of whaling as an industry in the late 1980s.
In 1986, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling because of the extreme depletion of most of the whale stocks.
Whales today perform a very unique ecosystem service by sequestering carbon from the ocean.
The somewhat recent recovery of this remarkable species is now helping humanity fight climate change. To understand this, let's start small.
Phytoplankton are microscopic marine algae dubbed the ‘ocean's invisible forests'. When phytoplankton die, much of their carbon gets recycled at the ocean’s surface, but some dead phytoplankton inevitably sink, sending more captured carbon to the bottom of the sea. A study from 2010 found that the 12,000 sperm whales in the Southern Ocean draw 200,000 tons of carbon out of the atmosphere each year by stimulating phytoplankton growth and death through their iron-rich defecations.
Whales are directly responsible for boosting phytoplankton growth in two ways. The movement of whales pushes nutrients from the bottom of the ocean to the surface, which feeds phytoplankton and other marine life.
The second way they help with carbon absorption is through their poop. These methods in turn support the entire food web of our oceans. This relationship between whales and phytoplankton ensures the sequestering of carbon which assists in stabilising the global climate.
In short, whales play a critical role in regulating our climate at a systems level.
Using nature to restore the balance of our planet's climate is a simple yet effective idea, which brings life and rewilding to the forefront of sustainable innovation.
What else can I say but whale-done!
🦏 Restoration Focus: Various whale species
📍 Where: Global co-operation
🎯 Method / Approach: International cooperation on whaling regulation (which began in 1931)
✏️ Who: Humanity
6. The Introduction of OECMs
OEC what?
OECMs are Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures, which offer us a new way to re-think restoration.
Restoration Success isn’t only about species, it’s about ecology and the environment.
By this I mean all important biodiversity hotspots, and not just including our national parks.
OECMs are best defined as
“A geographically defined area other than a Protected Area, which is governed and managed in ways that achieve positive and sustained long-term outcomes for the in-situ conservation of biodiversity, with associated ecosystem functions and services and where applicable, cultural, spiritual, socio-economic, and other locally relevant values.”
But an image says a thousand words…
🦏 Restoration focus: Biodiversity conservation
📍 Where: Globally - outside of Protected Areas
🎯 Method / Approach: Ecological Restoration
✏️ Who: Harry Jonas, Ashish Kothari and other authors. UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre
You can read more about OECMs in this deep dive here.
7. Bringing back the Bontebok from Near Extinction
Possibly the greatest comeback story never told.
Bontebok were once extensively killed as pests, and by the early 20th century were reduced to a wild population of just 17 individuals.
The species was saved from certain extinction when Dutch farmer Alexander van der Bijl brought the remaining Bonteboks together near a small town in South Africa.
In 1931, this herd of 17 was transferred to Bontebok National Park, which was established for the explicit purpose of conservation of the species. By the time the park was relocated to better suit the needs of the bontebok in 1961, the herd had grown to 61 members.
Today, their population is estimated to range from 2,500 to 3,000, all descendants of the original herd of 17 members.
Here is a full story of how the Bontebok were saved from extinction.
🦏 Restoration Focus: Restore and ReWild the Bontebok
📍 Where: Bontebok National Park, Swellendam, South Africa
🎯 Method / Approach: Captive Breeding
✏️ Who: Alexander van der Bijl
8. The Northern Grey Wolf and the Endangered Species Act
This beautiful animal has had a contentious relationship with humans, who hunted it nearly out of existence, for generations.
Conservationists have fought to bring its 300 survivors of continuous purges back up, although grey wolf numbers will likely never reach their peak of over 2 million.
Things began to get better for the grey wolf beginning in 1973 when Congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA requires the Federal government to help endangered and threatened species (those species that will likely face extinction if no action is taken to help them) recover from their low numbers.
There is some reason for optimism; a 2013 species count found nearly 4,500 wolves have returned to the Great Lakes, the northern Rockies, California and the Pacific Northwest.
But just as the U.S. was making progress for grey wolves, protections were stripped. In 2011, Congress ended protections in the northern Rockies, and in 2020 the Trump administration stripped wolves of their critical ESA protections across the country.
Anti-wolf legislators and extremists have been on the offensive ever since.
🦏 Restoration Focus: The Northern Grey Wolf
📍 Where: USA (the Great Lakes, the northern Rockies, California and the Pacific Northwest)
🎯 Method / Approach: Policy advocacy / Endangered Species Act (ESA)
✏️ Who: Grey Wolf Activists & the United States Congress
9. Blood Lions - How a Documentary Changed the Fate of Caged Lions
The Blood Lions Documentary is a call to stop canned lion hunting.
What’s interesting, is that this was one of the most impactful activism in the history of conservation.
Blood Lions® is a documentary feature film that blows the lid off misleading claims made by the predator breeding and canned hunting industries in South Africa.
South Africa currently has more lions in captivity than in the wild, with anywhere between 8,000 and 10,000 predators (possibly more) being held in small enclosures on 300+ captive predator facilities across the country.
Here are just a few of the successes created by this campaign.
March & May 2015 - Australia bans import of lion hunting trophies. Emirates bans shipment of hunting trophies
November 2015 - France bans the import of lion hunting trophies. National Geographic features Blood Lions as one of the 12 most important stories of the last decade
April 2016 - Netherlands bans import of lion hunting trophies
October 2016 - USA bans the import of captive-bred lion hunting trophies
March 2018 - Facebook, Google, Instagram, and eBay from Global Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online. USA reverses ban on trophy hunting imports from captive-bred lions and decides to issue permits on a case-by-case basis
January 2020 - 45 airlines now ban the shipment of hunting trophies, including lion
🦏 Restoration Focus: African lion’s conservation
📍 Where: South Africa
🎯 Method / Approach: Storytelling for Impact
✏️ Who: Film Directors Nick Chevallier, Ian Michler, Pippa Hankinson and the incredible Blood Lions Team.
Head to the Blood Lions website to read more about the progress thus far.
10. How South Africa’s Marine Protected Areas Grew from 0.4% to 5% seemingly Overnight
South Africa announced a new Marine Protected Area Network over two and a half times the size of the Kruger National Park (the largest land conservation area in SA).
The Department of Environmental Affairs announced that the Cabinet approved a network of 20 new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that are representative of South Africa’s rich coastal and ocean biodiversity.
This will increase the protection of the ocean around South Africa from 0.4 to 5%. The new areas will advance ocean protection by approximately 50,000 km2… about the size of Costa Rica.
How did this come about… seemingly overnight? Like most overnight successes, it started 10 years before.
SANBI scientist Dr Kerry Sink led the 5 year Offshore Marine Protected Area Project which was a key input into this work and was the lead of the Operation Phakisa Oceans Economy Marine Protected Area technical team who used advanced planning and hundreds of map layers to align protection and ocean economy goals.
SANBI initiated work on the expansion of Marine Protected Areas in 2006 after the 2004 National Biodiversity Assessment showed that offshore ecosystems are the least protected ecosystem types across all realms in the country.
SANBI also developed cooperative research projects with industry to increase our marine biodiversity knowledge base. The Offshore Environment Forum was established in 2010 to facilitate information sharing with multiple sectors. Stakeholder engagement has been a key aspect of the development of the network.
The new network will advance ecosystem protection for offshore ecosystems and provide the first protection for several threatened and fragile ecosystem types. The network includes Childs Bank, a unique underwater feature with deep water corals on its steep slopes, the first protection of undersea mountains in the Indian and Atlantic, submarine canyons including South Africa’s Grand Canyon off Saldanha Bay, rare mud habitats and key areas for recovery of linefish.
Support for the Marine Protected Area components of the Namaqua and Addo Elephant National Parks are also welcomed with decades of work behind the establishment of these areas.
Celebrate this milestone in African ocean protection by watching and sharing a short film directed and edited by Otto Whitehead, produced by Kerry Sink and Judy Mann-Lang, and filmed by Otto and Steve Benjamin
11. BONUS: What is the next great comeback story?
ReWild Africa and I are passionate about finding and shining the light on solutions to restoration. We are a film company that exists to support solutions for ecological restoration. We believe in working collaboratively with individuals and organisations which value both people and planet.
The golden thread in each of these restoration examples is that we have the power to turn the tide of biodiversity loss, and together - we can collectively regenerate, restore and transform the world we live in.
Interested in hearing more stories of restoration? Subscribe below.
Wild regards
Alistair Daynes and the ReWilders
PS - What’s your favourite restoration example (above or untold)?
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beautifully written!