Bacchetta, Jean

Rewilding activities in Europe have been focusing on the reintroduction of so-called “keystone species” to territories where they have been absent for centuries. Most notably, the European bison has been part of a continental-scale initiative to repopulate its former grazing grounds, from Portugal to Siberia, for the last thirty years. As much as re-establishing the population of an almost lost species, rewilders argue for multiple ecological benefits that come along with its presence in ecosystems.
In the USA, projects of reintroducing the buffalo to its former territories are being led by indigenous communities on their lands. The example of the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative is one of many bison rematriation projects whose main objective is to reconnect Native American communities to their long-lost relatives. These initiatives present an opportunity to generate new meanings around the notion of commons.
With this presentation we will therefore question what status bison are given in different countries across the world, focusing especially on fieldwork in Switzerland and the USA. How can we share space with this “megafauna” in landscapes that are overly anthropogenic. What conflicts emerge when these initiatives are undertaken? Can we imagine a future where bison would be part of commons and share resources with humans? What new perspectives on commoning initiatives can we learn from so-called “bison rewilding” projects and how can we make these projects beneficial to human communities as well as non-human entities.