The Abundance Paradox

The Hodja often highlights the paradox that the poor man is richest when he stops counting coins and recognizes true wealth around him. Rewilding sites frequently demonstrate ecological abundance that industrial management obscured: insects in incomprehensible numbers, fungal networks supporting entire communities, predator populations that seem excessive until you understand their function. Yet rewilders often approach restoration through scarcity-logic—"we need more wolves," "we must save these species," the language of shortage and rescue. The Abundance Paradox suggests the deeper shift is psychological: when humans genuinely perceive wild abundance rather than seeing lack, behavior changes. Practitioners stop trying to maximize outputs and start trusting proliferation. Communities near rewilded areas shift from viewing wilderness as threatening scarcity (prey removed, danger increased) to experiencing its abundance (food systems diversified, resilience increased). This requires time—abundance thinking emerges not from doctrine but from habitation, from repeatedly encountering nature's profligacy. The Hodja's path suggests that rewilding's greatest success comes when human communities stop managing for scarcity and begin celebrating the impossible richness that emerges unbidden from wild systems.