Cover -- Half-Title Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Introduction -- PART 1: Defining Baselines -- 1. Temporal Baselines: Finding a Tipping Point in the Past -- 1.1. Preamble -- 1.2. Introduction -- 1.3. Recognition problem: how do we define a new unit of time? -- 1.4. When did we enter the Anthropocene? -- 1.4.1. 50,000 years BP: the end of the Pleistocene and the extinction of megafauna -- 1.4.2. 5-7000 years BP: the Neolithic and the increase of methane and CO2 -- 1.4.3. 1610: "Columbian exchange", low CO2 level and cooling of the Little Ice Age -- 1.4.4. End of the 18th century: the First Industrial Revolution -- 1.4.5. The mid-20th century: the great acceleration and the fallout of radionuclides -- 1.5. A temporal baseline on the fringe of the Anthropocene -- 1.6. Conclusion -- 2. Spatial Baselines: Is Going Elsewhere Easier Than Going Back in Time? -- 2.1. Preamble -- 2.2. Introduction -- 2.3. What is a spatial baseline? -- 2.3.1. In search of naturalness... -- 2.3.2. On the basis of which indicators? -- 2.3.3. In search of truly comparable sites -- 2.3.4. A single site or a collection of sites? -- 2.4. Emblematic examples of singleand multi-site spatial baselines -- 2.4.1. The Białowieża Forest, a baseline for European forests? -- 2.4.2. Characterization of the ecological status of rivers in the United States -- 2.5. Conclusion -- 3. Mapping What is Left of Nature -- 3.1. Preamble -- 3.2. Introduction -- 3.3. Zoning of spaces of perceived wilderness: the wilderness of some is not that of others -- 3.4. Locating the last wild spots: where is there any baseline nature left? -- 3.5. Nature areas broken down into facets and gradients: are there tipping points in space? -- 3.6. Anthropization of nature: summarizing the influence of humans in a single index.

3.7. Anthromes: ending the divide between the natural and the anthropogenic? -- 3.8. Conclusion -- 4. The Baseline: A Social Construction -- 4.1. Introduction -- 4.2. The baseline evolves over time: the shifting baseline syndrome -- 4.3. How is the baseline constructed? -- 4.4. Debating the baseline -- 4.5. Conclusion -- 4.6. Acknowledgments -- PART 2: Using Baselines to Conserve Nature -- 5. Rewilding by the Return of Ghosts of the Past -- 5.1. Preamble -- 5.2. Introduction -- 5.3. Contemporary ecosystems populated by ghosts? -- 5.3.1. Extinctions and disappearances of species -- 5.3.2. Impacts of extinctions and disappearances on ecosystems -- 5.4. Rewilding to repair -- 5.4.1. How far back do we go to rewild? -- 5.4.2. How is rewilding achieved? American, Russian and European trends -- 5.5. Criticisms and controversies around rewilding -- 5.5.1. Ecological criticism -- 5.5.2. Ethical criticism -- 5.5.3. Social criticism -- 5.5.4. Cultural and political criticism -- 5.6. Conclusion -- 6. Spontaneous Rewilding through Land Abandonment -- 6.1. Introduction -- 6.2. Land abandonment: a form of spontaneous rewilding -- 6.2.1. Active versus spontaneous rewilding -- 6.2.2. New open spaces resulting from spontaneous rewilding -- 6.2.3. Encouraged or tolerated spontaneity -- 6.3. Quantifying and mapping spontaneous rewilding areas related to land abandonment -- 6.3.1. Context -- 6.3.2. Material and methods -- 6.3.3. Results -- 6.4. Increasing awareness of rewilding areas -- 6.4.1. Identifying areas of land abandonment before they are urbanized -- 6.4.2. (Re)giving a place to open spaces -- 6.5. Conclusion -- 7. Geoprospective: Looking for Potential Scenarios -- 7.1. Introduction -- 7.2. The baseline as a shared and objective knowledge base -- 7.3. The baseline as a way to improve confidence in scenarios -- 7.4. The baseline for the exploratory evaluation.

7.5. The baseline as an objective to be reached -- 7.6. Conclusion -- 8. The Place of Ecological Knowledge in Policies for Ecological Neutrality: No Net Loss and Biodiversity Offsetting -- 8.1. Introduction -- 8.2. Global overview of the application of the mitigation hierarchy -- 8.2.1. The success of NNL policies at the international scale: thepolitical promise -- 8.2.2. The application of the mitigation hierarchy in France: a recent regulatory evolution -- 8.2.3. The implementation of NNL policies: a high degree of heterogeneity at the international level -- 8.2.4. Methods for calculating the ecological equivalence -- 8.3. The question of a baseline in NNL policies: between ecological and socio-economic perspectives -- 8.3.1. Ecological perspectives -- 8.3.2. Socio-economic perspectives -- 8.4. Implications of NNL policies for biodiversity conservation: ethical and political perspectives -- 8.5. Conclusion -- PART 3: Examples of the Use of Baselines -- 9. The Variability of Baselines Mobilized in Littoral Protected Areas: The Anthropocene as a Dividing Line? -- 9.1. Introduction -- 9.2. The prehistoric baselines of paleo-rewilding -- 9.3. The historical baselines of prior states to development intensification -- 9.4. The contemporary baselines as historical hybrids between nature and culture -- 9.5. The negotiated, controlled and adapted baselines in the Anthropocene -- 9.6. The baselines of novel ecosystems in free evolution -- 9.7. Conclusion: the Anthropocene at the origin of new baselines for Littoral Protected Areas -- 10. Baselines and French Forests -- 10.1. By way of introduction: "the legendary virgin forest of Doussard" -- 10.2. Forestry "cardiology" -- forestry "systoles" and "diastoles" -- 10.2.1. Forest systoles -- 10.2.2. Forest diastoles -- 10.2.3. Phases of silvigenesis: when only certain attributes are retained.

10.3. The baseline of French forests examined through the lens of historical ecology -- 10.3.1. The vicissitudes of forest cover since the Holocene -- 10.3.2. Baselines: compasses or daymarks? -- 10.4. French forests in the Anthropocene era: chosen or endured states? -- 10.4.1. A state chosen according to a geography of conservation -- 10.4.2. A state undergoing global changes -- 10.5. Baselines and French forests: illustrating our forests together -- 11. How Can We Maintain Traditional Agro-Pastoral Landscapes? -- 11.1. Introduction -- 11.2. How does an agrarian landscape evolve? -- 11.2.1. Nested subsystems -- 11.2.2. A system in constant evolution -- 11.3. Example of the natural grassland-hedgerows combination -- 11.3.1. Initially, a few hedge fences around the cultivated fields -- 11.3.2. Division of the soil and multiplication of fences -- 11.3.3. Extension of fodder crops -- 11.3.4. The hedge fence loses its usefulness, then becomes a nuisance -- 11.3.5. In the end, which baseline(s) should be retained? -- 11.4. What exactly do the restored spaces represent? -- 11.4.1. A mosaic of spaces -- 11.4.2. Inability to identify a historical baseline -- 11.4.3. So what exactly do these baselines represent? -- 11.5. What to do then with this forgotten or reinvented past? -- 11.5.1. Three possibilities -- 11.5.2. Maintaining an ecological memory at all costs -- 11.5.3. Extending the agricultural memory and accepting the creation of new agro-pastoral landscapes -- 11.6. Conclusion -- Conclusion: The Baseline Concept: A Narrow Path Between False Trails and True Impasses -- A narrow path: debating the baselines to aim for better shared choices -- A geographical look at the notion of a baseline and nature -- References -- List of Authors -- Index -- Other titles from iSTE in Ecological Science -- EULA.