Rewilding megaherbivores to conserve wood-pastures and cultural landscapes

Wood-pastures--mosaic landscapes composed of scattered trees, shrubland, and grassland--are a cornerstone of Europes ecological and cultural heritage. Yet their conservation is increasingly threatened by the decline of disturbance regimes maintained by both megaherbivores and traditional agro-silvo-pastoral practices, leading to afforestation, biodiversity loss, and heightened wildfire risk. To evaluate the conservation potential of restoring megaherbivore communities to rebalance disturbance regimes in Italian wood-pastures, we reconstructed a Holocene, pre-agricultural baseline assemblage and compared its ecological functions with those of the current, impoverished megaherbivore community. Using zooarchaeological records, functional trait data, and allometric estimates of movement capacity and plant biomass removal, we demonstrate that a reconstructed assemblage would substantially increase functional diversity--by +0.19 in Functional Divergence and +0.22 in Functional Dispersion (on a scale from 0 to 1)-- and result in much higher vegetation consumption (11.88 versus 4.45 t km-2 yr-1), with a shift toward greater grazing. This would support the maintenance of open, heterogeneous habitats, reduce fine-fuel loads, and likely promote long-term soil carbon sequestration, aligning with EU climate and restoration objectives. Enhanced megaherbivore movement capacity would also increase endozoochorous seed dispersal, improving vegetation connectivity and adaptive potential under climate change. Additionally, we synthesized socioeconomic insights through a SWOT analysis of megafauna rewilding in Italy. Key strengths include strong cultural associations with megafauna, active rewilding organizations, and emerging economic opportunities tied to ecotourism and rural branding. However, challenges related to conflict, zoonoses, early-stage management requirements, and limited communication among stakeholders remain substantial. Our findings underscore the ecological and cultural relevance of megaherbivore rewilding for restoring wood-pastures in Italy--a context where rewilding remains underrepresented in public and academic discourse. By providing a quantitative, integrative assessment, this study offers foundational evidence to inform national ecological restoration strategies and promote ambitious, process-based approaches to conserving Europes semi-natural cultural landscapes.