Amongst Aliens and Ghosts

Book excerpt: As a new conservation paradigm, rewilding is quickly gaining popularity across Scotland. Against the urgencies of the Anthropocene, rewilding projects offer hope by imagining radical visions of biodiverse futures that promise liveability not just to humans but a large host of species. Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Scotland, this study explores the diverse multispecies temporalities that come to matter within rewilding. Scottish rewilding landscapes are populated by various beings and absences that blur rigid categorisations of linear temporality into past, present, and future. The ghosts of extirpated species continue to shape the becoming of landscapes, and the unruly presence of invasive alien species complicate the convivial ethics of rewilding initiatives. Following the temporal entanglements of various Scottish beasts, this book describes the interconnections between time, death, and belonging in storied landscapes.