Tropical re-wilding?

Visions of the Rewilding Renaissance
#1

Since people have gradually lost pretty much all of their primitive skills, it makes sense to gradually regain them.

In my opinion, I think the best places with most manageable learning curves are in tropical climates. Particularly islands/ atolls. Even with sea levels on the rise, there is certainly enough time left for rewilders to practice their skills in a very ‘forgiving’ environments like islands.

It seems to me that most rewild activities happen/are geared towards environments like Alaska, the rockies, ect. What about the tropics?

What do you guys think?

#2

Hmmm… I think that some tropical places, like Hawaii, would definitely make life easy for rewilders - my sister lived on the beach in a hammock for a year or two there, and I’ve heard that many do the same in Latin America. Also in Hawaii, one could eat feral chickens that run around wild, and smoke weed for free (“ditchweed”), and plants have a year-round growing season, so it seems easy to grow food for oneself year round.

I think other tropical places would have their own set of challenges, though, at least as daunting as the harsh winters of northern climates. Such as… bugs, tropical diseases, piranhas, etc. I have no doubt that indigenous people of the tropics know exactly what to do to coexist happily with all of these things, but without that knowledge, life might end up very unpleasant. Winter frosts prevent many challenging critters from existing in more northern climes, like roundworms, the parasites that burrow through the skin (hookworms?), malaria, etc.

Also, I think the “harshness” of the land varies greatly from place to place, but not necessarily according to latitude. With its mild temperate climate and seemingly total lack of any spiny plants, poisonous animals, and indigenous diseases (with the exception of the invasive Himalayan blackberry), the Pacific Northwest seems like the gentlest landbase I’ve ever experienced, while the deserts I’ve experienced have seemed much “harsher” (but just as wonderful in their own way). With a lack of skills and knowledge (at least compared to an indigenous culture that knows the land intimately), I think a “gentler” landbase would make living primitively much easier.

#3

The Hawaiian rainforest is what I’d call a ‘soft jungle’. It has none on the parasites and baddies associated with the Amazon.

I think tropical places in south america would be absolute HELL to survive in. In the amazon, everything is trying to eat you. I’d chose the pacific NW over a real jungle, any day.

-Calvin

#4

I lived in Hawaii for a while and still have friends and family living there. I can tell you that it has its own fair share of challenges. The tsunami wasn’t nearly as disasterous as people predicted, but it still flooded out several places in Maui. And don’t forget that you have live volcanos on the big island and those lava flows can change direction and destroy your village any day. And then there’s the gasses from the volcano that can be lethal if you get too big of a dose of it if not it still can float down on you like smog. (The locals call it “vog”)

What I’m trying to say is that every place has its strengths and weaknesses. I feel we need to rewild where we’re placed. Looking at other places and thinking, “That’s the place to rewild” is just another form of “the grass is always greener on the other side.” This can paralyze us from actually acting.

If we learn about out place and how we can rewild in our location then begin to build that bond to the land. If we have to move due to whatever circumstances, then we will at least have the “invisible” skills that come and we will be able to get rolling better in out new home, and hopefully that bond will come faster and easier.

#5

Very true. I think building that bond with the land has more importance to rewilding than just about anything else. And if someone has such a bond, then they will understand the land, and know how to best live there. Once someone considers all those who live on their land as extended relations - once the wider community of life becomes family, and the place becomes home - then if they need to know some particular knowledge they need, they can always just ask a relative.

#6

I think that for some people, they will have to leave N. America to find a more suitable place to live the way they desire. I have spent several years living in the tropics and sub-tropics now, and have only spent a few months in N. America during the past couple of years. I found the landbase I was looking for in the tropics and spend most of every year there while I take the steps to obtain residency and deal with immigration. I am writing this from the southern tropics.

I do not desire a return to N. America which I find unsuitable for myself personally. I also find it easier to hunt for food on a regular basis and deal with h-g logistics in a more remote tropical location than the more crowded colder lands of N. America.

The tropics really simplify day-to-day life for someone living out bush. This is from my own experience, I can’t speak for anyone else. Regarding food, shelter and clothing it is a whole other ball game than N. America and especially Canada, where I grew up.

For those that can get something going in N. America, that’s great but for myself the tropics of the southern hemisphere have been much more conducive for long-term living out in the bush and hunting, it’s where my in-laws live, where my aboriginal fiance lives, and where I feel at home, it‘s the place I miss when I leave from time to time. Dingoes and parrots have become more familiar and sacred to me than the coyotes and crows of my childhood. The tropical trees and eucalypts have become the trees I am used to and work with for my daily needs, rather than the aspens and cottonwoods of the American prairies…

To each their own but for some people the grass is greener on the other side.

#7

The idea of rewilding Hawaii makes me laugh. Not on Oahu, not anymore. It’s basically a city, the whole island. it’s too small and there is no local anymore. 95% of the food is imported and those who do grow food locally for the markets are priced out by the strict certification rules that they can’t sell anything in the farmers market or stores.

So I took to the big island of Hawaii and lived in the jungle rewilding for 9 months. It was more difficult than I imagined (and colder too!) Despite what people believe about Hawaii, little of it is true. You do need a coat, and wool socks to live there. A pair of boots wouldn’t hurt either. It rains alot. A LOT.

Wild pig destroyed my gardens, both fenced and guerilla gardens, constantly. If I built a stronger fence, they just destroyed it more violently. They didn’t just destroy gardens, but destroyed soil, plants, streambeds and whatever lawns they could get their hooves on. Sure, you can hunt as many wild pig as you want, and that’s an advantage (and even encouraged) but I get bored after 7 meals straight of pig. There’s also wild goat, wild chicken and abundant fishing. Except for the permitting of fishing poles adn the fact that most beaches where the fishing is good are crowded with tourists and authority figures who will ask you if you have a permit to fish. Gathering is forbidden unless produce is “fallen” and in the road. If it is off to the side, it is still “stealing” to take it, no matter how hungry you are. If it’s in the road, you can imagine what has already happened to it.

Not to mention mosquitoes, which deserve a page of their own as “ecological hazard”.

There are some advantages and yes, tropical places have to be rewilded same as any other, but I don’t think it’s any “easier” than any other place. I left the islands, and now I’m in cascadia too, and there’s a lot here, that’s easier to work with than there, believe it or not. Mostly, dry weather.

#8

I live in one of the driest sunniest climates on earth, and it is in the tropics. It’s the dry tropics, not the wet tropics. Where I live there are pretty much no mosquitoes year round, save for a few during the seasonal wet season…I find the drier climates more easy to deal with than the wet ones but I still prefer to be in the dry tropics than a dry temperate location, I don’t like the cold, the excess population (which are all over the lower 48 and lower Canada) and all the expenses that come with living in North America…