Conservation and Biodiversity
When Nature Leads: Remarkable Stories of Ecosystem Recovery
August 22, 2025
When scientists discuss solutions to environmental degradation, the focus is often on what humans can do to supplement recovery. But what if that means doing less?
There is growing scientific and observational evidence that ecosystems can and do recover when given time, space, and a reduction in stressors. This type of recovery is called natural regeneration. Nature, when left to its own devices, has often surpassed human expectations in its ability to heal and thrive, revealing not just resilience, but a remarkable capacity for renewal. Let’s get into a few examples of how nature has “restored itself”.
Ecosystems Reborn in the Wake of Destruction
In some of the most unexpected, and once completely destroyed parts of the world, nature has proven its astonishing ability to recover when human activity retreats.
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, once the site of a nuclear disaster that forced complete human evacuation, has become home to an accidental wildlife sanctuary. Now approaching almost forty years of human abandonment, the area has become a haven for wildlife, with lynx, bison, deer, and other animals roaming through thick forests. The area represents the third-largest nature reserve in mainland Europe.
Less famously there is another accidental wildlife sanctuary that deserves a mention – the heavily fortified border between the North and South Korea Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) has evolved into a paradise for wildlife. Stretching about a mile in either direction from the border itself and covering about 155 miles between the two countries, it has remained untouched for seventy years. Despite being peppered with landmines and surrounded by barbed wire and soldiers, 5,097 animal and plant species have been identified in the area, including 106 that are labeled as endangered or protected.
These include animals listed at Endangered Level 2: the Armour leopard cat, the Siberian flying squirrel, Yellow-throated marten, Reeves turtles, Korean tiger leopard, Red-crowned crane, White-naped crane and Steller’s sea-eagle, and the Eurasian otter, both Endangered wildlife Grade 1.
Rewilding on Land: Forests and Wildlife Making a Comeback
While some ecosystems bounce back purely through abandonment, others benefit from low-intervention rewilding — approaches that gently guide natural processes without heavy-handed manipulation.
Totaling 3,500 acres in West Sussex, Knepp Wildland represents one of the UK’s most successful rewilding efforts. Rather than artificially controlling growth, the estate’s owners allowed the land to regenerate naturally through a “hands-off” approach, mimicking how the area was before humans engaged in large-scale hunting and farming in the region.
Guided by free-roaming animals like ponies, cattle, pigs, and deer that mimic the area’s ancient grazing patterns, the area has flourished, bringing animals from all over the country to nest and live. The result has been a dramatic return of biodiversity, including rare species like turtle doves and purple emperor butterflies—along with restored soil health and a richer, wilder landscape.
Thousands of miles away, Costa Rica has become a global leader in forest regeneration. After losing much of its forest cover in the mid-20th century to logging, the country introduced payments for ecosystem services (PES), protected land policies, and incentives for sustainable farming.
Depending on the specific area, landowners simply allow degraded pastures or abandoned farmland to regenerate naturally, without replanting or managing, while others actively restore land with native tree species. As a result, native species like tapirs, toucans, and monkeys have been reappearing in secondary forests. Water retention and soil fertility have also improved as native vegetation takes hold, allowing for carbon sequestration to occur.
Rewilding After Conflict and in the Ocean
Following the Mozambican Civil War (1977–1992), Gorongosa National Park experienced near-total ecological collapse, with populations of large animals declining by over 90% due to widespread poaching and environmental destruction.
Nearly twelve years after the war, a transformative partnership between the Gregory Carr Foundation and the government of Mozambique set out to restore the park—not by rebuilding it from scratch, but by creating the conditions for natural regeneration. By removing more than 20,000 traps and wire snares, restricting hunting, and gradually reintroducing key herbivores and predators, the team allowed the ecosystem to heal and grow on its own.
It’s not just the land that can see nature transformed. Marine protected areas (MPAs) like Cabo Pulmo in Mexico offer powerful proof that when ocean ecosystems are given time and space to recover, the results can be extraordinary.
Once heavily overfished, Cabo Pulmo experienced a dramatic transformation after local communities supported its designation as a no-fishing zone in 1995. Since then, fish biomass has increased by 460%, making it one of the most successful examples of marine restoration in the world. Coral reefs, once degraded, now thrive with life—from sea turtles and reef sharks to schools of large predatory fish—all thanks to the resilience of nature and strong community stewardship.
These examples represent the profound potential of rewilding and natural regeneration when human interference is reduced and reoriented towards passive recovery or low-intervention guidance.
If the people are happy, nature will do the rest. Trees know how to grow and elephants know how to make more elephants.
Gregory Carr
Gregory Carr captures the essence of what ecosystem recovery teaches us: nature does not need to be micromanaged — it needs to be respected. From war-torn landscapes and abandoned borders to carefully protected lands and marine sanctuaries, the environment shows an extraordinary ability to heal when given space and time.
When we align ourselves on nature’s terms, ecosystems don’t just survive — they flourish. In the end, the path to restoration may be less about doing more and more about stepping back, trusting in nature’s quiet wisdom, and creating the conditions for life to return on its own.Help us make a difference around the world by donating to the Canopy Tree Project so that we can play our part in planting trees and supporting both communities and nature.
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