Rewilding Europe Blog

Spring breaks in Western Iberia

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:59:58 +0200

Posted by Carlota Pérez Ruiz on 30 April 2013 - After a winter that will be remembered as the wettest in Spain for the past 51 years - according to rainfall data recorded by the Spanish Meteorological Agency AEMET - spring has broken into Western Iberia. These heavy rains have managed to increase water reserves compared to the same dates last year.

Ponds full of water, rivulets and rivers filled have all turned the West Iberian landscape into a painting with lots of colors, synonymous of high biodiversity.

These water reserves are the best guarantee of large areas with rich and biodiverse green roofs, to the delight of the wildlife in the Western Iberian habitat. Wild herbivores are the first to benefit. Retuerta and garrano horses, sayaguesa and maronesa cows, roe deer and the rest of herbivory welcome spring in the Western Iberian peninsula.

Educating the next generation Wilderness Entrepreneurs in Western Iberia

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:37:49 +0100

Posted by Judith Jobse on 27 March 2013 - Traditionally, nature conservationists are not trained in business development and entrepreneurship. It is often assumed that nature conservation related professions are guided by ecological and sustainable principles which, therefore, define the educational design of nature conservation curricula. However, the uncertain financial contexts for nature conservation and persistent competing claims by diverse stakeholders concerned, require alternative professional competences to address current conservation challenges. Educating the next generation of nature conservationists requires developing curricula that incorporate innovative learning approaches and are consistent with new and upcoming contexts and requirements.

Together with European partners I am currently developing curricula in the context of our European rural landscapes which are undergoing drastic socio-economic changes. Rural populations are decreasing and the current economic carriers cannot sustain rural livelihoods any longer. At the same time, new opportunities for nature conservation arise where nature can regain its wild character in Europe’s abandoned landscapes. To benefit from this opportunity, Europe should have new types of environmentally educated professionals. There is a need for entrepreneurs who are able to come up with innovative solutions. Entrepreneurs should stimulate rural economic developments which promotes the restoration of ecological processes. We envisage having nature entrepreneurship ranking highly on the agenda in learning environments where students of different educational levels collaborate with each other and with professionals in Rewilding Europe's pilot areas.

Erasmus Intensive Programme

The coming days, 31 students and several lecturers from universities in Bulgaria, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and The Netherlands will gather in Western Iberia. I am very excited to join this group to participate in the Erasmus Intensive Programme (IP) 'European Wilderness Entrepreneurship'. It is organized with the help of Rewilding Europe, Associaçâo Transumância e Natureeza (ATN) and Fundación Naturaleza Y Hombre (FNYH).

The students of the IP European Wilderness Entrepreneurship will form interdisciplinary teams to share knowledge and exchange experiences and ideas. We will travel throughout the Western Iberian landscape to meet stakeholders such as an Iberian pig breeder and the owners of tourist accommodations. We will visit the rock carvings in the Côa Valley, taste local wine and olive oil, and look for the magnificent birds of prey. During our travels, we will discuss business models for nature conservation that takes natural, economic as well as social contexts of landscape into account. At the end of this IP, all teams will present an innovative business model for nature conservation in the Western Iberian landscape.

Fruitful collaboration

This Intensive Programme is a product of a fruitful collaboration between Wouter Helmer (Director Rewilding at Rewilding Europe) and Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, where he was installed as a Honorary Lector in the Forestry and Nature Management Programme in 2009. Wouter Helmer inspired me in his first lecture at VHL to educate nature conservationists and managers with a clear vision and strong entrepreneurial skills to promote ecological restoration of our European landscapes. Therefore, my colleagues at VHL and I developed in collaboration with WU the new Bachelor minor International Nature Entrepreneur, launched last month. Students participating in this minor will join me in the adventure of this intensive programme.

Judith Jobse is lecturer in (Tropical) Forestry and Nature management at Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands.

Reconciling with the wild

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:50:54 +0100

Posted by Deli Saavedra on 14 March 2013 – Since many years I am dedicated to the conservation of nature and for almost a year I work with passion as Rewilding Manager at Rewilding Europe. Last months, an experience in nature and a notice in the newspaper made me think through a rewilding perspective.

January 23.
I'm in Velebit (Croatia), visiting a large hunting reserve. 16,000 hectare of snowy hills and large open areas. We see some small groups of roe deer, and just in front of us a majestic Ural owl flies away. The fields show signs of abandonment, there’s no farmer left. The few scattered villages are practically abandoned. It’s the outcome not only of the process that occurs throughout Europe, but also as a result of a fateful war almost 20 years ago.
The manager of the hunting area, while driving slowly along the snowy tracks, proudly tells me about the number of deer and bears he has. He stops and shows us recent wolf tracks that cross our way. He asks me advice in building hides, hides that could bring in photographers and naturalists to observe the wildlife. He tells about the responsibility they have to take care of the wildlife, not only to hunt it. This land is his home and he likes it this way: wild and full of wildlife.
I realize that in areas like this large hunting reserve, where the rewilding is an unquestionable process, often the only remaining human actors in the region are hunters. They could become allies to move our initiative forward...

January 27.
I read in the Spanish Quercus magazine that wolf watching tourism in Sierra de la Culebra generates half a million Euros per year. Sierra de la Culebra, in Northwestern Spain, might be the area with the highest density of wolves on the Iberian peninsula.
The first time I went there was more than 20 years ago. We stayed at the only guesthouse of the area and half a dozen locals turned to see “those crazy bastards who enjoy watching the wolves, that damn animal”.
In the whole region, only one famous guy, the ranger Manolín, tried to protect the wolves. He told us where to watch them. He was aware that if wolves could generate money, they would certainly be better protected ...
A few days later the same article appeared in the Financial Times. Now with a statement of the owner of the guesthouse (now one of many) who recognizes: "80% of my clients come to watch wolves and without them my business would no longer exists...”

February 25.
I am driving on the track that leads from my home to the nearby town, making a shortcut. It is always nicer than the main road and you can enjoy a landscape of forests, fields, and in some places views of the river. At night, you see rabbits, hares and even a fox or a badger. During the day the largest visible animals are the abundant buzzards. But this morning, tosurprise, there are four male fallow deer in a field. They don’t seem to be very afraid with our presence, I can even take a picture with my mobile phone. Great news! The poor pine and oak forest has suddenly become a mysterious place inhabited by fallow deer.
The fallow deer came here all the way from the Aiguamolls nature park. Here they were reintroduced more than 20 years ago. Until recently roads and hunters didn’t allow the deer to leave the nature park. But nowadays a new mindset and the abandonment of certain areas allows them to use the river as a corridor and spread to unexpected places...

All these stories in the first person have a thread of consistency: reconciliation. In Europe we are reconciling with wildlife. It is a psychological, social and ethic process, which "affect" a significant part of the Europeans, even in rural areas.
This reconciliation together with the abandonment of large natural areas, provides Rewilding Europe a historic opportunity that we must seize. Let’s go for it!

Deli Saavedra, Rewilding Manager, Rewilding Europe

2012 – when the Tauros started growing wings

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:33:30 +0100

Posted by Ronald Goderie on 9 January 2013 – With the New Year just arrived, it is time to look back at 2012, a year in which the Tauros Programme certainly took a flight. Above all, a communications flight. We can just stare in wonder at the response from the international media on what we are doing. For example, extensive coverage in the 2012 Christmas issue of The New Yorker magazine (on the Tauros Programme and Rewilding Europe). A couple of million people will read about our plans to breed back a bovine species that will be pretty much like the Aurochs once was, in every aspect.

Sure, we knew already early back in 2009, when our initiative first became public, that our plans were being followed by a small group of interested ecologists. Even when our first calf was born, we couldn’t predict that we would be ”hot” once. But apparently that was the case. The cooperation with Rewilding Europe will certainly lead to a further boost, thanks to Rewilding Europe’s media work and contacts network. Big national newspapers in Italy and Spain have covered our initiative, followed by newspapers in Brazil, Time magazine and National Geographic. Partly maybe because they got the – completely wrong – impression that we were doing some kind of ”Jurassic Park”.

Yes, we are working together with scientific institutions and bit by bit identifying the full genetic code of the Aurochs, but no, we are NOT planning to inject DNA into empty egg-cells of cows or something like that. Instead, we will use the full DNA of the aurochs as a baseline, a reference point. As something much more secure and reliable compared to cave paintings and copper engravings.

This is because all the original aurochs DNA is still around. The genetic information is still there: in the so called ”primitive cattle breeds”: breeds that still possess many characteristics of the Aurochs. And by using those more ancient cattle breeds you immediately earn a lot, for example natural wildlife behaviour, since most of the animals we use have lived in semi-wild and quite natural conditions over a long time. So we are convinced that a strategy of back-breeding, starting with some of the most suitable primitive breeds, is the best and quickest way to get to a completely self-sufficient wild bovine, that resembles the Aurochs as closely as ever possible.

It is not a quick fix, however, it will take years, at least a decade before we are there.

Now on to some of the highlights of 2012 and a gaze ahead. Our herd of crossings (mainly first generation) currently counts about a hundred and twenty animals, the eldest one being nearly three years old – Manolo Uno, named after one of the last Spanish ”cowboys”. He’s a beautiful and impressive animal, our “top model” for the moment.

The animals are kept on several locations in the Netherlands and a group of Maronesa cattle is still waiting in Portugal to be brought over to the Netherlands. With their almost Aurochs-like appearance (just somewhat smaller) and big horns they can make an important contribution to the programme. However, veterinarian hurdles have stood and are still standing in the way – we have been waiting for over four months for the right Bluetongue serum to arrive in Portugal. In the meantime, we bought a group of Sayaguesa cattle from Spain and they are already in the Netherlands. Together they will speed up the transformation of our biggest Tauros herd in the Netherlands considerably.

A field visit today already gives a fairly good impression of the progress, but it will improve a lot, since we are step by step moving out the considerable number of highlander cows that are in the pasture today. They are there to keep the nature reserve open, but they are not part of the breeding programme. From spring 2013, a visitor will mainly see Tauroses in different stages of development, and also a sizeable herd of beautiful Exmoor ponies. The Exmoors are seen as one of the most ancient of all horse breeds in Europe today and have no problems living wild and free. You can walk amongst them all, both free-ranging cattle and horses and this already gives a kind of wildlife experience.

In addition to our new imports, spring will bring another hundred and fifty first and second generation calves, partly from artificial insemination and embryo transplantation. So we are well on our way! However, a rough estimation of the number of animals needed for the Rewilding Programme in 2020 alone could easily land us in the thousands. So there’s a lot of work to be done. Together with the Rewilding Europe team we will work out a strategy to get ahead as fast and as precisely as possible.

There has been progress on the scientific level as well, although we might have been a bit over-optimistic at times. We were hoping our scientists would by now have unravelled the full genetic code of the Aurochs, so we would be able to test our first generation not only on looks and behaviour, but on genetics as well. Unfortunately the Aurochs nuclear DNA samples could not be analysed yet, so this will take a bit longer. Meanwhile, Wageningen University was successful in analysing the DNA of about 30 primitive breeds in 2011, and, since other international research groups have already unravelled the full genetic code of Mitochondrial DNA of the Aurochs, Wageningen University was able to draw up a genealogical tree of European primitive breeds via the maternal line, connected to the Aurochs.

This proved that some of the breeds we are using (such as the Spanish Pajuna and the Italian Podolica) are very close to the Aurochs. This is also the case for the Spanish fighting bull (Lidia breed), but because it no longer behaves naturally and has been selected over the centuries to be aggressive, we decided early on not to use this breed. A research group from Dublin University has made considerable progress on sequencing the nuclear DNA of an Aurochs bull in recent years. Wageningen University has received part of this material, to be able to make a comparison – now on the nuclear DNA-level – again with the 30 primitive breeds. We hope to get this information in the first half of 2013. That would enable us to construct a genealogical tree on the nuclear DNA as well (that’s where all the information on characteristics is ”stored”).

And then there is also work in progress at the University of California, where a research group has received dental material from a quite recent Polish Aurochs skeleton. They are doing test runs now, to see whether or not the material can be used for further analysis. So we’re optimistic again that a lot of additional genetic information will be available during the first half of 2013.

Since we have now got a small herd of crossings, we will start our first selections as well. Up until now we’ve been doing this on the basis of ”looks and behaviour”. Of course, we store genetic material of these individuals, too, to be able to use this as a selection method as well, once we’ve made enough progress.

Finally, our cooperation with Rewilding Europe also started in 2012. It is very inspiring for us, since Rewilding Europe has assembled a large team of enthusiastic, knowledgeable and visionary people, who have given rewilding principles very deep thought. In 2013 we will for sure all meet on several occasions, with the WILD10 World Wilderness Congress in Salamanca, Spain in October as THE peak event of the year. WILD10 has also graciously given us the right to use their logo after the congress – a beautiful and powerful Aurochs from one of the cave paintings, filled up with human handprints. Aurochs 2.0: it’s man’s work. During 2013, the Tauros will definitely attract a lot of attention. We have a lot of work to do, in order to live up to these expectations, but we have got a very good feeling about this. In 2013 we’ll definitely reach several new milestones with the Tauros Programme. More to be seen about it on this website – stay tuned!

Ronald Goderie, The Taurus Foundation

Horses help bears

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 08:00:00 +0100

Posted by Joep van de Vlasakker on 28 December 2012 – It is already pitch dark when I arrive in the small town of Midwolda, in the far North of the Netherlands. I call Dirk Brul, the manager of Ennemaborgh and ask him for the key to the barn, my hotel for the night. I will not sleep alone. The barn is inhabited by, very appropriately, a pair of barn owls. It has been a very long drive so I am sure the owls won’t keep me awake. It will, however, be a very short night as it will be an early rise; round-up time tomorrow and loading 28 horses for transport to their ‘new home’ in Spain. The Groninger Landschap foundation has donated Konik horses to me in the past, for natural grazing projects in Estonia, Germany, Poland and Latvia, so we have been working together for a numbers of years. Going back ‘North’ therefore feels like a reunion every time. These Northern guys are hard workers and experienced with horses, a pleasure to work with during round-ups.

Ennemaborg is an old estate, now owned and managed by the Groninger Landschap. It is a very interesting area as it was the first project area on natural grazing (all year round grazing without additional feeding), using Konik horses as substitutes for the extinct wild horse. It started already in 1981, therefore it is probably the first rewilding area in Europe! ‘Konik’ is the Polish word for small horse, as they originate from Poland. The Koniks, are uniform and have beautiful gray colours with a dorsal stripe and most of them carry some zebra striping on the legs. They are primitive and robust, and thus very suitable for natural grazing. The nature reserve is not very big, just 170 hectares, however, very beautiful, and the choice to use horses for the management has paid off. It now holds high biodiversity values and is appreciated by the many visitors. But as the area is small, it gets overpopulated with horses and every year the horses need to be rounded up, and the surplus removed.

Every fall, I get a call from the Groninger Landschap. In 2011, it was Silvan Puijman, the regional manager. “Hi Joep, I have surplus horses and they have to go before the winter”. So work to do. Many phone calls and many e-mails to many countries followed, and as time passed, winter was nearing and I had not yet found a solution. I called Silvan and explained the situation – “several options but nothing concrete”. Silvan knows it is not always easy to find a new home for 30 horses at once. Slaughtering them is an easy option, but not a nice one, and for Silvan, the last option. He agrees to keep them through the winter and give me more time for my search.

During a bison conference in September 2011 I met again my bison friend Fernando Moran, president of the European Bison Conservation Center from Spain. He passionately told me about the possibilities for rewilding and bison re-introduction in his home region, the Cantabrian Mountains. He invited me to start a ‘rewilding project’ together. I should come and see this magnificent area with my own eyes, he told. So in October 2011, I spent 3 days travelling the Cantabrian Mountains with Fernando. I also met with Joaquin Morante, a bear specialist, who joined us for a part of the trip. The area is indeed magnificent; lovely mountains, a varied landscape, beautiful oak forests, and remote wild areas. So Fernando did not have a hard time to convince me this is a great place for rewilding. In the heart of the area, away from everything, with a 360 degree view, seeing a big group of rutting Red deer below us, surrounded by autumn colours, I truly got a feeling of wilderness. These are the kind of places were my heart starts pumping faster and I feel alive. It was there that Fernando, Joaquin and I looked each other in the eyes and said “yes, let’s do it” and decided to start our own rewilding project in Cantabrian Mountains.

After the farming humans arrived and settled down in the valleys around the Cantabrian Mountains, maybe 5.000 years ago, they started herding sheep and goats in the mountains. Soon after that the original, native large herbivores where either pushed out or became extinct, the remaining ones could only survive in very low numbers. Before human settlement, the area must have been flourishing with large herbivores like horses, aurochs, bison, red deer, chamois and ibex. The proof of that can still be seen on the many amazing pre-historic rock paintings in the region, made by the hunter-gatherers that lived here before the farming man arrived. But now it is the people and their domestic livestock that are leaving the area. Farmer’s sons no longer want to work as shepherds and stockbreeders. 5.000 years of a culture based on pastoralism is coming to an end, a process we can witness in most of the marginal rural areas in Europe.

With no successors and reduced subsidies, people leave the area. Almost all livestock is now gone, leaving the mountains an empty place. Carnivores like wolves and bears, and scavengers like vultures are left without food. Bears, in search of food, move into the valleys, still occupied with people and cause conflicts. The grazing and browsing native large herbivores are either extinct or in too low numbers, and can’t (yet) take over the role of the domestic livestock. So bush encroachment is happening all around, leading to an extreme forest fire risk. In 2011 over 200.000 hectares of forest and shrublands were burned by fire in Spain, mainly in former livestock grazing areas.

We wanted our project to be innovative and a pilot on human and large mammal co-existence. Starting a rural development based on cherishing nature and restoration of the total guild of native large herbivores, large carnivores and scavengers, to bring benefit and profit to the local people and give young people here a new future. Since horses have always been a key species in the ecosystem, they are also a key element in our project. The horses will fulfil a multifunctional task in the Cantabrian Mountains. Through grazing they will open up vegetation which will benefit many species e.g. fruit carrying shrubs that will benefit the bears, their excrements will attract many beetles, also good food for the bears. And when horses die, their meat will not be wasted, but eaten by the bears, wolves and other scavengers like vultures. Both horses and bears will make the mountains lively and liveable again.

Previous stockbreeders and shepherds becoming guardians of the wild large herbivores is one of our new innovative approaches. In our model the stockbreeders will be trained and start working on the conservation, research and monitoring, and made responsible for the well being of the wild- and semi-wild herbivores. When wolves eat the large herbivores, these people will monitor it, instead of using poison to kill the wolves. We propose turning livestock subsidies into wild large herbivore subsidies. Local people will be trained to guide the tourists to see the horses and bears and to host and feed their guests, of course. For the first time since Neolithic (new stone age) times stockbreeders and shepherds will no longer be the enemies of wild large carnivores and herbivores, but host them just as warmly and friendly as their human guests. The large wild mammals will be their geese with golden eggs.

Since my first visit last year a lot has happened. Anti-poaching and anti-poisoning projects, using poison detecting dogs, were implemented. Mobile bee hives were placed to assist natural pollenisation, as without pollenisation there are no fruits for the bears. Transhumance were made, with sheep and goats, to the area, in order to stop bush encroachment and to assist the wild herbivores until the numbers of (semi-)wild herbivores are high enough so they can do the job themselves. We want the large herbivores to reach these natural densities as soon as possible. During the coming months I will send around another hundred horses to our young rewilding project there. Several eager landowners where found, thanks to hard work from Fernando and Joaquin, to participate in the project, totalling now 1750 hectares, all connected. 17 bison where brought here in June 2012, 3 Eurasian wild horses (Przewalski) in September 2012, and now another 27 Konik horses.

On 5 December I got up early after a short but good sleep in the barn. The morning was gorgeous, a little frost and a white winter landscape like on a Christmas card. After a short drive we all gathered around the round-pen where the horses where rounded up. What a sight it is to see these beautiful horses all together, frost on their coats and vapor coming out of their nostrils, like fire. We selected groups, so mares and foals would travel together and adult stallions would travel separately to avoid stress and injuries. Since each of us knew what he had to do, we needed little words to do the job and in a few hours we had the horses selected, the microchips checked and the animals ready to be loaded. One of the horses did not have a passport so he had to stay in the Netherlands for another winter. All other papers were in order and the export papers where signed and stamped by noon. There was very little stress among the horses and besides a few rising and biting stallions the loading of the horses went smoothly. The 27 horses where ready to go on their way to Spain.

It was a long drive for the horses, so it was two days later that I got a call from Fernando: “They are great, everybody loved them and applauded when they came out of the truck”. The release ceremony was well attended, media was present and more then 20 neighbours showed up. Several of them showed interest to join the project after having seen the horses. This is good news, as it will help us build a good horse population quickly, which is important for the visitors but also because only high numbers can have the needed grazing and browsing effects on the landscape. Only in high numbers can they keep the landscape open and also provide enough food for carnivores and omnivores like the brown bear. If the bears find enough food in the mountains they are not inclined to come close to human settlements in the valleys. With no conflicts they become more easily accepted and will even contribute, together with the horses, to the local community by attracting visitors. The horses will help the bears and the bears will help the people – and enemies slowly become allies. A win-win situation for wildlife and local people, that is what rewilding is all about.

Bison round-up

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 10:02:19 +0100

Posted by Joep van de Vlasakker on 3 December 2012 – Sometimes I feel like a modern cowboy, or as someone once told me: a bison boy. This November, I ‘rounded-up’ two bison in Switzerland and transported them in my big trailer to Belgium; one of many small actions, but part of a much larger operation. Rewilding Europe has an ambitious plan to have breeding herds of bison grazing in several of its rewilding areas in eight years. But where do all these bison come from?

We all know the images of huge herds of American bison or buffalo, as they are also called, on rolling grasslands as far as the eye can see from North America. Strange actually, that almost every European knows the American bison but hardly any European knows their own bison; even though it is the biggest land mammal in Europe! Is it the influence of Hollywood? When I was a young boy I loved watching western movies and dreamt of being a cowboy. I am sure I was not the only one. That is how I was introduced to the buffalo and most probably you too.

If it is up to Rewilding Europe, you will soon no longer have to hop over the ocean to see the magnificent spectacle of big herds of bison. It will soon be possible on our own continent, even if it is with it's cousin – the European bison, also called wisent. But before we can make this happen, we first have to work hard to gather and ‘round- up’ the existing bison from the many wildlife parks and zoos throughout Europe.

The Wisent ones roamed Europe from Russia to Spain and from Sweden to the Caucasus. The species had an important role in the formation of the prehistoric European broad-leaf forest and grassland ecosystems by grazing, browsing, trampling and defecating. They lived in very large herds of thousands of animals, maybe even millions. Hunted intensively by mankind from a very early age, bison numbers quickly dropped. As the hunter/gatherers settled down and started to farm, the few remaining bison were primarily killed to prevent damage to crops, and at the end they were hunted as exclusively ‘Royal Game’.

By that time, habitat fragmentation, warfare and overhunting had already lowered the bison numbers to dangerously low levels. Royal hunting grounds, like the Białowieża forest, hunting ground of Lithuanian kings and the Russian Tsars, were the last strongholds for the bison, protecting them from poachers. In the beginning a nobleman would show his courage by killing a bison from horseback with a spear. Later kings and tsars enjoyed the hunt from a more luxurious position. Being seated in a chair the bison where forced towards the Tzar by local villagers who were forced by the thousands to participate in these Royal hunts, allowing the Tsar to fire his gun at the passing bison.

Bison poaching was a risky activity – if caught you faced a death sentence. But that did not stop people from poaching bison and the severe punishments and the ‘Royal’ protection could not prevent the bison numbers from dropping further. It was the warfare of the First World War and the Russian revolution and the following political instability that allowed heavy poaching that finally killed the last free-living bison in 1919 in Białowieża and 1927 in the West-Caucasus. The curtain had finally fallen for the last surviving bison in the wild.

Luckily the bison survived in captivity thanks to a few European zoos. Together there were only 54 (29 males and 25 females), all originating from 12 ancestors. The International Society for protection of European Bison, established in 1923 in Germany, took the lead in the restoration of the species. The statute of the Society included the maintenance of European bison by planned breeding and distribution, followed by introductions to large forest complexes. The work of the society was successful and soon the European bison population in captivity started to grow again.

Poland had an especially strong role in the restitution of the species. The first reintroduction of European bison to forest ecosystems started in Białowieża forest in 1952, followed by re-introductions in other areas in Poland and in several other countries. Today the world population is about 4.500 animals, ca 1.500 in captivity and ca 3.000 semi-wild or wild. Different herds are scattered throughout mainly Eastern Europe and there is no genetic exchange between the herds. Only 3 herds of bison have more then 100 individuals. The bison is clearly not out the danger zone yet.

As a comparison, it is still more endangered than the black rhino of Africa. After more then 60 years of restoration of the bison, it can be concluded that progress has been made but numbers are still too low. Rewilding Europe wants to bring a change for the bison by preventing all killing (called “culling”) of bison and allowing the number of free-living bison to grow much faster than in the last 60 years.

Bringing back bison is clearly not ‘just’ about bison. It is more about people, even mostly about people. Local people have to see that bringing back bison is a good idea and will bring benefits, income, pride and joy to them. This sometimes takes time, it means starting partnerships and friendships that rely on trust.

However, a bigger problem seems to be the authorities that have to understand their role and be more supportive and give permits for bringing back the bison. This also takes time but in the mean time we have started the ‘round up’ and we are establishing breeding groups, working together with genetic experts like Wanda Olech and with several bison breeding centres throughout Europe. Acclimatisation and breeding enclosures then need to be built locally, in the reintroduction areas, to which the bison will be released in the future. As soon as these areas are ready, we want the bison to be ready too!

Co-operation and good partnership with bison breeding centres is essential for this; partnership that consists of trust but also of friendship and dedication. I have worked with bison for many years and I have also worked already many years with Etienne Brunelle, manager of the wildlife park Han-sur-Lesse (Belgium), one of the participating breeding centres. Etienne has provided many animals for different re-introduction projects over the years to me and our co-operation has grown into strong friendship. It is these kind of partnerships that consist of friendship that turn dedication into success in the field. When I asked Etienne to enlarge his breeding group so extra surplus animals can be donated for Rewilding Europe, he did not even hesitate but immediately agreed. So a few weeks ago we drove to Bern in Switzerland to ‘round-up’ two bison (a young male and female). They have now joined the existing group at Han-sur-Lesse and hopefully we will have a new generation of bison waiting to be rewilded soon.

It will take a lot more ‘round-ups’ and transports like this one, but all this work and dedication from many partners will pay off in the coming years when you will visit one of the rewilding areas and see the bison as far as the eye can see; just like in the movies.

Joep van de Vlasakker is a wildlife advisor of Rewilding Europe.

A fox that leads the way

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:26:58 +0100

Posted by Wouter Helmer on 27 November 2012 – At the edge of Poland, close to the sources of the river San, a beautiful valley divides the forests on both sides of the border with Ukraine. An ancient lime tree in the meadows and a charming overgrown cemetery remind the visitor of bygone times, when this valley was intensively used by peasant families.

Now large trucks come to the Upper San to carry off the hay, which is mowed thanks to European subsidies. Large herbivores that could do the job for free have problems to reach this area, as they are hunted in the forests at one side, and poached at the other side of the valley.

The Upper San valley itself is free of hunting, but yet it is a surprise that we see a fox in broad daylight, wandering along the forest. Less than one hundred meters from us, we can see that he is lying in the grass. A beautiful animal with a clearly defined throat and a white tip of the tail. His eyes focused on the trucks as he obviously knows that when the trucks and mowing machines are gone, the fields leave a lot of food behind: mice, grasshoppers, beetles... If not dead, then at least without the cover of the long grass.

While our colleagues are standing apart, having a fierce discussion about the future of the San Valley as a rewilding hotspot, Pierre-André is taking his camera and decides to approach the fox as close as possible. And I, curious about how far he could go, decide to follow him. Less than 80...60...40 meters; the fox is still looking at the large machines. Finally we stand at less than 25 meters from the animal as it gets up, not even rushed, and quietly walks away. No fast, hunched run, but upright, at ease. Not a chance that he had survived, if we had guns instead of a camera and a pair of binoculars...

OK, so this is how you can experience wildlife in hunting free zones, even if there are big hunting areas around. And this is only a fox, which can spend his whole lifetime within such a small hunting free zone as the Upper San Valley. But imagine that this open valley is connected, by a hunting free corridor, with the summer pastures that cover the ridges of the Carpathian mountains. That free roaming herds of deer, wild horses and European bison migrate between those seasonal habitats without the risk of being shot. There could still be a flourishing hunting economy around these corridors, but then at least we had one area in Europe, where we could experience the natural migration of European wildlife – no longer shy of people - over tens of thousands of hectares. With wolves following those herds, lynxes waiting for their chance to take a young deer, bears living from the carcasses. That’s what came to my mind, just thanks to a fox.

Wouter Helmer is the Conservation Director of Rewilding Europe.

I saw a wolf!

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:35:32 +0100

Posted by João Quadrado on 22 November 2012 – A few days ago I saw a wolf! This may not be big news, but let me explain.

I was born and raised in the interior north of Portugal, and I always had curiosity about wildlife and our natural heritage, which lead me to becoming a biologist. Since childhood I’ve been fishing, hiking, kayaking, mountain biking and doing some serious bird watching around here. Altogether, I spent a considerable amount of my life outdoors in a variety of places in the region that allowed me to had contact with a great variety of animals. Some of them where very good observations of a certain behaviour like a golden eagle mating or an otter eating right in front of me, others just a fleeting shape or a speck in the binoculars. All around here, without travelling a lot, but the only species that was missing, was the wolf, and my expectations where really getting low...

The population of wolves in Portugal suffered a huge setback in the 50’s and 60’s because of human persecution, leading almost to extinction in the central and southern areas of Portugal. Now it is slowly recovering and increasing in numbers.

There are lots of stories from local shepherds and hunters that have seen wolves, but just a few of them are reliable. I myself have already seen wolves in other places, but here in the home vicinity just some possible footprints and droppings. Well, this time I saw one, almost by accident!

Driving on a secondary road in the end of the day still with some light and the sunset at the horizon I noticed something on the side of the road, 300 m ahead, slowly moving between the shrubs. I slowed down, thinking to myself “It’s a fox” – and then the “fox” walked to the side of the road and I noticed it was something bigger. I still found it hard to believe that it could be a wolf, though.

I tried to stop the car, but I was too close, I had scared it away. He saw the car and crossed the road running, but now there was no doubt about it – the shape, size, colour, and behaviour – it was a wolf, for sure. Right there in front of me, in my home region, in a place that I cross several times a month. Now every time I go there, I drive really slow and look everywhere, hoping to see it again.

Seems a small thing, but I was really happy with that. For me it was a big thing. A huge one. When I shared the information with some friends studying wolf distribution in central Portugal, they congratulated me and asked: “Was he fat?”

The comeback of the wolf and others emblematic species is happening right now. We must keep it up and push forward, it will be great if we can get good results in a lifetime.

João Quadrado is Rewilding Europe's project manager in Portugal.

Southern Carpathians – where even wilderness could be wilder

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 09:49:00 +0100

Posted by Florian Möllers on 7 November 2012 – The Mitsubishi 4WD is helter-skeltering around some awful potholes as we are rushing downhill towards the village of Mehadia. “If you could make a wish, what would that be?” I ask Gogu as the frontlights flash at large beech and elm along the forest road.

“As a hunter or as a forester?” he asks back, shifting gear, cruising around the next big puddle and concludes, “As a hunter I wish I had 30% less wolves and a quarter of the boars you have in Germany. As a forester, I wish we had a cabin in the forest where we could safely put some gear and where the men find shelter when the weather is just too bad. Better infrastructure and good roads for the lorries bringing the logs down. And that we are not cutting all the forest in the end.”

My thoughts swing back to the last two days, when I had the chance to accompany a truly Romanian hunt for wild boar. After six hours of disappointment and neither seeing nor hearing a single thing on Saturday, everybody was overly motivated on Sunday. 15 hunters of the “Clubul de Vanatoare Baile Herculane” and the “Grupa de Vanatoare Mehadia” had teamed up for this day’s hunt, each of them knowing his bit about the best ways to shoot the first boar of the season. The first two weekends had been without any success. Probably also due to Romania having seen one of the driest Octobers in the history of weather monitoring, forcing most wildlife to retreat to remote shady valleys that still held some water supplies. The initial enthusiasm dropped as the first two drives in the morning passed without a single animal in sight.

At our next location we spotted fresh tracks and freshly dug up soil along a forest road. Were they really still around? The place was carefully examined and it was already late afternoon when Gogu positioned the shooters, while the three drivers and their four dogs spread out at the foot of the hill aiming to drive the boars uphill and into shooting range. Half an hour and a few orders whispered into Gogu’s mobile phone later we heard primeval screams echoing through the forest: the hunt had begun! The drivers were beating sticks at trees, calling, screaming to get the boars on their feet. But no dog barking, no fresh tracks that would have put them in alarm mode.

All in a sudden a shot – we froze and looked at each other in excitement. A second rifle shot bellowed through the woods only two seconds later. “Uaaah!” the drivers started calling again when a shotgun was fired, two times – that was close.

Ten minutes later the first shooters had left their stands and returned to the cars. They were excited, relieved, as everyone was sure that these four shots meant – boar down.

Another half an hour and they were proven right: a three year old sow, in very good condition, around 90 kg, obviously not suckling anymore and killed with a perfect shot through the shoulder and right into the heart chamber. Bottles of home-made Tuica were handed around, a cheerful round, smiling faces.

The club is allowed to shoot 8 boars per season on 7.000 ha, Gogu explained. His eyes widened as I give him a comparison: in the 3.500 ha of the Grunewald forest in Berlin, on average 350+ boars are shot each year. He translated and everybody looked at me in disbelief, even more so as I told them that almost 450.000 boars got killed in Germany in 2011/2012.

Back in Baile Herculane, in one of the hunter’s private gardens, an electrician and a truck driver amongst the hunters were the designated expert boar skinners and almost done after one hour of hard work, preparing the skin, eviscerating the meat and dividing it into equal shares – for 20 people. My guide Adrian and I counted once again as the lottery started: weren’t there just 18 people here? One minute later Gogu held his hat with the tickets in front of us with a big inviting smile, “Come on, your turn!” There was no chance to deny and everyone was cheering as two plastic bags got loaded with 2 kg of fresh wild boar meat each.

Just two years after clear-cutting large chunks of the beech forests natural regrowth with incredibly dense stands of young beech takes over – a man-made paradise not only for wild boar to spend the day in, but also for grazers like roe deer and red deer. But hardly any of the trees here show the typical bite marks of the ungulates. Obviously, in many areas, even within the borders of the reserves, heavy poaching and official hunting keep wildlife numbers low, whilst predators, mushroom pickers and constant legal and illegal logging keep it shy.

Looking at the vast forests in Domogled Valea Cernei National Park, below the rugged plateau of the Mehedinti GeoPark and in the valleys of Tarcu Nature 2000 site with a central European eye, one would think they should be teaming with big wildlife. But the only wild animals we saw on our excursions into the Romanian wilderness in the past seven days was one hare at the road at night, a pair of ravens around our campsite in the mountains, a buzzard and a sparrow hawk in the distance and a frightened roe deer buck chased uphill to right in front of our feet during the Sunday hunt.

The Romanian nature offers great potential to any project aiming to bring wild animals back to their old realms. But it will be the Romanian people who will decide if the Rewilding Europe vision can be turned into a Rewilding Europe success story.

Florian Möllers is a German photographer who just returned from a photo mission to the Southern Carpathians rewilding area in Romania.

The "rewilding seed" from mountains

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 14:14:35 +0100

Posted by Davor Krmpotić on 2 November 2012 – I like to climb Veliki Rajinac. Neither the prettiest nor the highest peak of Velebit, but it is special to me because only there, leaning back on the deep soft mountain carpet and viewing the entire Adriatic Sea, I can easily unload my worries like nowhere else.

Intoxicated by the medicinal herb aromas carried by the salted air, I can easily imagine that there is no crisis and that the old saying “a man is a wolf to another man” does not apply.

Wiping the sweat from my forehead I feel that I absolutely belong to this mountain and this glade. Which evil spell is it that always makes us completely forget where we originate from, the very moment we put on a suit and tighten a tie?

Why can urban people no longer grasp the healing power of the energy of the mountain?

I have always been fascinated by the fact that all worries about what will happen tomorrow are absent from the faces of people who walk and spend some time in the mountains. The reason must be that they bring back from the mountains only what they carry in their hearts.

Yes, there are people who wonder: Why do the mountains no longer resonate with hooves of stamping herds hounded by wolf packs? Why can’t the deer roar from the shrubs, by which the king of the forest tells the others that he gathers his harem and warns the rivals away, be heard any more? Why are the pastures doomed to be overgrown by forest and thus the stage, where alternating scenes of life and death are played, be lost?

Right here, between these limestone cliffs battered by ancient rains and sweat of hard-working aborigines, “rewilding seed” begins to germinate – the idea that wants to provide an opportunity for a new beginning, to understand the wilderness as an unquestionable part of ourselves.

This mountain has waited so long for an initiative like this to appear. An initiative that would replace a gun with a camera and an ax with the teeth of ruminants. An initiative that wants to say that living conditions, culture and tradition do not need to be in collision with the protection of wildlife, and that by changing our attitude towards wilderness, we can create new values.

Reintroductions, bringing in new blood, increasing populations, organized breeding and wildlife monitoring are the new mantra that brings hope to this mountain.

The “rewilding seed” will enable one, only in a few hours by car or plane from any part of Europe, to experience an encounter with the bear, lynx, wolf or some other wild animals “from the first row” of the natural theatre, where thrillers, dramas and comedies written by the mountains are played right before your eyes.

And who knows, if you keep in your heart a small portion of Velebit wilderness, perhaps it is you, to whom it will give peace and erase traces of concerns about the future from your face.

Davor Krmpotić is the rewilding officer on the ground in the Velebit rewilding area.

What do you think about the beaver?

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:00:00 +0200

Posted by Alexandra Panait on 25 October 2012 - Humans have influenced beaver’s ecological history for centuries. Empires were built on beaver fur trade. Different trends in fashion almost got the species extinct at one time, and unconsciously saved it later when preference moved from fur to silk. More recently, the green revolution consciously safeguarded the species, by promulgating protection laws.

Rewilding Europe in partnership with WWF Romania is developing a broad wetland restoration initiative in the Danube Delta. Parts of it are programmes for species reintroduction - including the beaver - and for sustainable local business development.

In this context, my proposal was to conduct a pre-reintroduction social survey, which had to explore communities’ attitudes towards the proposed reintroduction of the beaver in the Danube Delta, Sfantu Gheorghe village area.

It soon became apparent that it also made sense to extend this study, to look at how the attitudes in communities that have been already seen the beaver reintroduction during 1990s compare to the ones from Sfantu Gheorge village. So, I started from Transylvania, in Covasna County, along the Olt River where the beaver was reintroduced almost 14 years ago.

The question was whether the people from Transylvania who saw or heard about the beavers in the area, were more inclined to change their perception towards the species than the community from the Danube Delta?

I visited more than 20 villages in Covasna County, where I applied a specifically designed questionnaire; I even had the chance to see beaver traces and the animal itself. After that, I spent another month in one of the most remote villages in the Danube Delta, in Sfantu Gheorghe, applying the same questionnaire and organizing a focus group, but also exploring the amazing landscape, not without noticing signs of habitat degradation.

It quickly became noticeable that there was a high level of awareness of beaver species existence, with almost 80% of the respondents from the two areas saying that they had heard about it.

Even though a higher level of damages, caused by wild animals in general, was reported in Covasna, the respondents recognized the beaver’s ecological role and supported the idea of money spent on reintroduction, in comparison with Danube Delta respondents. Surprisingly, exposure to damages caused by wild animals increased the level of tolerance towards them. However, beavers caused none of these damages.

But if you look at this content out of the context the story is not complete. In the Danube Delta, I reasoned that people associate beaver’s presence with financial gains, but the conflicting issues here is that people were reluctant of allocating the funds for such a reintroduction. And this could be a reflection of personal choices when it comes to prioritizing the money for more urgent needs than conservation projects.

But apart from this context, what were exactly the factors that influenced these attitudes?

Even though the statistical models had a high level of uncertainty, three factors proved more relevant in the end. For both areas, the level of education and the level of knowledge about beaver conservation status and legislation were significant - the higher the levels, the more positive the attitudes towards the reintroduction was. Interestingly, applying only for Covasna County the distance from the house to the river bank was an important factor, which meant that the closer the house was to the water bank, the more negative the attitudes were regarding the beaver presence.

In both areas of the country I also saw the legacy of the communist regime and the status quo: deserted areas behind constructed dams, wetlands transformed into agricultural land, signs of corruption and poaching, lack of trust in public institutions and lack of information, all with the underlying lack of financial means.

Still, there is plenty of space for innovation in conservation management adapted to the local specifics, for dialogue and cooperation between communities and other stakeholders which, in the end, can be a source of change for the better, for both communities and environment.

I also had the privilege to work with live information through the collection of data, to access the local knowledge, and honored to be received so well in the communities and to receive valuable advice from them. Hopefully the findings will be of some help to the Rewilding team when adapting their management from the lessons learnt from both regions in Romania.

So, cooperation should be the word that describes best what should ideally happen in the next stages of the Rewilding initiative in the Danube Delta, where the local communities could connect with the local governance and with the conservation teams in all the stages of the project, and where all the involved parties could democratically bring valuable inputs to the development of an idea.

Participating in such a project and combing local knowledge and cultural heritage with scientific and socio-economic expertise could vastly enrich people’s livelihoods as well as the biodiversity of a unique place in the world, the Danube Delta.

Alexandra Panait
MSc Conservation Science
Imperial College London

Biggest bison transport ever

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0200

Posted by Joep van de Vlasakker on 9 October 2012 - The bison that were released in June in the Cantabrian Mountains in Northern Spain are adapting very well to their new surroundings. They are gaining weight and building up fat reserves for the coming winter. They seem to browse a lot in their new surroundings and cope well with the warmer climate.

The bison were released on June 8 under a lot of local and media attention. This was a special day for all the people involved, as it marked the return of the bison to an area where they have been missing from the ecosystem for centuries. The bison lived in Asturias until the late Middle Ages. Evidence of bison presence can still be found in the famous Altamira and many other caves with beautiful cave paintings of bison.

Local people were very emotional to see the bison released, some of them had their eyes filled with tears. It was also emotional for myself as it marked the success of 1,5 years hard work in finding a new home for these 17 bison and coordinating this operation. This was the biggest transport of European bison ever. Even though there are only a few thousands animals and the bison is still a threatened species, surplus animals are still culled in captivity due to lack of sufficient re-introduction projects and funding. The same fate was waiting for these animals if no action was taken. Luckily, thanks to co-operation with the director of the European Bison Breeding Centre of Spain, Fernando Moran, new homes for the bison and funding for the transport could be found in the Cantabrian Mountains, one of the Rewilding Europe nomination areas.

Six bison were released in a 200-hectare enclosure in San Cebrián de Mudá, Castilla y León, where they joined another eight bison. Four were released in a new small breeding centre at Sierro, Asturias, close to Oviedo. 7 were released in a big property of 2.000 hectare at Villayón, Asturias. In this property, EBBC of Spain built a first release area of 130 ha for adaptation. This autumn the bison will be released into the surrounding 2.000 ha. This is a very important step for the bison as this area is expected to carry more than 100 of them in the future and the area can be enlarged further.

The bison had travelled more than 2.000 km from the Lelystad Nature Park in the Netherlands, who kindly provided these animals. Some animals were temporarily accommodated at Han-sur-Lesse Wildlife Park. Both parks supported the re-introduction in kind.

The Cantabrian Mountains are a good example of land abandonment as young people are moving out of the area. Bush encroachment is happening rapidly as livestock numbers are dropping. The return of the bison as keystone species is important for the ecosystem and helps prevent forest fires in this region. Local people have welcomed the bison, not only as a long lost child returning home, but also as the return of the bison symbolises the beginning of new job and livelihood opportunities, related to rewilding, wilderness and wildlife.

Let history inspire us

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:29:53 +0200

Posted by Erik Baláž on 15 August 2012 - It is difficult to imagine the feelings of the first Europeans who stepped on the American continent. In that time, herds of millions of bison and pronghorn, followed by huge amount of wolves and giant grizzly bears lived on prairies. For cultivated Europeans endless and impenetrable forests with gigantic trees had to be frightening. This country evoked admiration and awe, as well as fear. It was a real wilderness, “a place without the God”, a place which had to be degraded on behalf of the civilization.

It is interesting how the experiences of the first Europeans in America are similar to the descriptions of the ancient Romans who, at the beginning of AD, crossed the border of the Roman Empire and arrived in the area of the Hercynian Forest. This forest did not have exact borderline, though, it lay somewhere between the rivers Danube, Elbe and Rhine. According to Pliny the Elder, the Hercynian oak forest was “untouched by the ages and coeval with the world, which surpasses all marvels by its almost immortal destiny. To omit other facts that would lack credence, it is well known that the collision of the roots encountering each other raises up hillocks of earth, or, where the ground has not kept up to them, their arches in their struggle with one another rise as high as the branches, and curve over in the shape of open gateways, so as to afford a passage to squadrons of cavalry”.

A Roman historian Tacitus described the Hercynian Forest even more impressively and, according to him, this forest was practically prehistoric, “as old as the world itself, standing above all miracles by its almost immortal destiny”.

Almost 2,000 years elapsed since man had tried to manage wild nature. It was not only about “making the country more cultured” to the prejudice of agriculture. A civilization exchange brought along a religion exchange. Pagan gods, settled in holy groves or cultic trees, had to be replaced with the Christian god. Destroying the holy groves, logging the old trees and killing thousands of bears and wolves – adored animals which had become symbols of evil – was a part of this struggle. This destruction was so consequent that most of the European wilderness did not survive until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Nevertheless, even 200–300 years ago single primeval oaks grew in Central Europe. A Polish poet, Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (1798–1855), wrote about one of them:

“Shall I find you again? Are you living this while?
You, among whose trunks I once crawled as a child:
Does great Baublis survive yet, within whose huge womb
By centuries drilled hollow, as in a good room,
A supper for a dozen could easily be set?”

That tree had to have 4 meters in diameter at least! If we are able to find oaks as old as 1,000–1,500 years in Europe now, such trees could be found much more often in the past. Suppose whole forests consisted of these old oaks, lindens, elms, …

Our continent was unbelievably diverse. In those times, as well as during the Middle Ages, the forest did not just mean an area covered by trees, as nowadays. The “forest” meant something like a wasteland. This wasteland included not only vast forests, but also steppes and forest steppes, swamps and fens, deserts and salt meadows. When the Danube river overflew near Bratislava, the water extended tens of kilometres on both sides and when it withdrew an impassable system of dead river channels and wetlands remained. It was a country of fish, frogs, turtles, snakes, and birds. Near Bratislava, in Záhorie region, sand dunes moved much like somewhere in Sahara. In lowland, where climate conditions were drier, steppes were created. In places with high evaporation and soil supplied with underground water, salt meadows originated (something like a salt semi-desert). It had to be an amazing mosaic of various types of habitats.

That area was literally saturated with life. Large animals such as bison, aurochs, wild horses, moose, bears and wolves were still common. Rivers were full of fish. Whereas we were successful in eradication of large animals during the Middle Ages, a wealth of fish is almost preserved until today. Even 200 years ago an amazing show was enacted on the Danube’s banks – beluga shoal. The largest riparian fish in the world swam upstream in huge shoals and Bratislava citizens stared with open mouths, as their backs sticked out of the water. Belugas were usually 2–6 metres long but some of them grew up to 10 metres long. Can you imagine it?

It could seem that 2,000 years ago Europe was almost an untouched continent but it was not true. The first century AD is probably the period when the last European lions and leopards became extinct. The Neolithic Revolution resulted in an increase of human population as well as a change of their lifestyle. Large animals were suppressed long before the origination of the Roman Empire and during it, only a small amount of formerly numerous herds survived. Already at that time, the Southern Europe was mainly deforested and adapted to man’s needs.

If we would be able to travel back to the pre-Neolithic times, we would probably also see millions of herds of large herbivores here, as it was just 500 years ago in Northern America and still is in several parts of Africa nowadays.

But we live in a different age. The world has changed and we cannot go back. It is important to know what we have done to our nature and land. Someone smart once said that if we know where we came from, we also know where we are going to… I do not want to evoke depressive mood. I, paradoxically, apprehend it in a positive way. History can inspire us. If our continent was able to create such amazing miracles in the past, it will manage it again. If we will create really large protected areas and leave them on their own, we will experience things, which we cannot even dream of.

Linking Enterprise and Rewilding

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 10:27:51 +0200

Posted by Neil Birnie on 8 August 2012 - We continue to make steady progress as we seek to develop businesses which will support our rewilding objectives. We’re working both to identify and support existing businesses which are relevant to our rewilding areas – and also to design some new businesses where we feel there is an opportunity to create something different and complementary.

The Rewilding Europe enterprise support team have spent time in the Eastern Carpathians, in Velebit and in Western Iberia in the past few weeks. There are many types of businesses which might be appropriate for support.

One of our favourite businesses so far is a business in the Faia Brava reserve in Portugal which is offering unusual dinners and events in nature. We were treated to a fantastic “wilderness dinner” under the stars by the banks of the Coa river. In Velebit the rewilding area team are developing ideas for a wildlife breeding business, which will work with the emerging “European Wildlife Bank” to breed and release wildlife into the wider Velebit area. In the Eastern Carpathians we met an Orthodox priest who is working hard to revive his community in Osadne and to develop tourism linked to nature. And we continue to explore ways to support an exciting nature-based brewery and restaurant business in the Bieszczady mountains.

The most important factor in selecting which businesses to support is their relevance to rewilding. We are therefore looking specifically at businesses which might do one or more of the following:

Promote access to, understanding and enjoyment of a rewilding area;
Develop / distribute products or services that can directly support rewilding activity;
Generate capital finance that can support the development of a rewilding area;
Generate operating finance that can directly sustain and enhance a rewilding area;
Increase and/or diversify the economic value of wildlife and other biodiversity within a target rewilding area in a manner that increases local and wider incentives to conserve and enhance it.

We hope to launch a financing mechanism for rewilding-focused businesses in the coming months, and as ever, we invite ideas and contacts for businesses which may be relevant to Rewilding Europe.

The return of the Atlantic sturgeon in the Rhine system

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:31:11 +0200

Posted by Bram Houben on 31 July 2012 - For many years, people in the Netherlands and surrounding countries were talking about it. Last spring, it finally happened. The Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) was reintroduced to his former homeland, the Rhine system! Only a few people know that this prehistoric fish, reaching sizes of even 3,5 meters, once flourished there. Nowadays the sturgeon is just as endangered as the black rhino.

The sturgeon is known for its caviar or "black gold": the unfertilized eggs are a delicacy to people when eaten raw and a little bit salted. Unfortunately, this is also one of the main reasons why almost all sturgeon species worldwide are threatened by extinction. On top of this, overfishing, damming of rivers, degradation of habitats and pollution of rivers take their toll. These are main reasons why sturgeon populations have decreased worldwide and are still decreasing dramatically.

A century ago, the Atlantic sturgeon inhabited almost all main rivers in Western Europe. Nowadays, only one population remains: in the Gironde Estuary and the Garonne and Dordogne rivers in France. Indications that another population exists in the Rioni River, Georgia, cannot be reliably confirmed. The survival of this last French population is the result of efforts by French biologists, nature organizations (Irstea) and policy makers. Atlantic sturgeon is protected by different legislation (EU Habitat Directive, CITES, Bern Convention and others). After 13 years of putting a lot of effort in research, conservation and communication by the French, a major breakthrough in sturgeon conservation was been reached: the French hatchery now breeds successfully. Young sturgeons were released in the wild in huge numbers in France during the last years, providing hope for the future!

Living rivers

Different French and German conservation organizations developed "the European action plan for the conservation and restoration of the European sturgeon". The main goal of this action plan is to restore the historical distribution of sturgeon throughout Europe. The Rhine used to be a very important river for the sturgeon. In 2010 WWF-Netherlands, the Dutch Sport Fishing Association and ARK Nature, supported by our French colleagues of Irstea, set up a Dutch sturgeon project. For decades, WWF-Netherlands, together with many partners from public and private sectors, have been working on the restoration of the Dutch Rhine, Scheldt and Meuse as "natural, living rivers". This has been a great success, biodiversity increased with almost 80% due to the "rewilding" of the river systems. In addition, governments took many other measures, such as improving water quality, restrict commercial fishing, building fish ladders so that migrating fish is able to pass dams to reach spawning areas and so on. As a crown on the work, the time had come for the reintroduction of the Atlantic sturgeon as a symbol of a successful Living Rivers programme!

After a long time of preparation, the first 50 sturgeons from the French breeding program came over to the Netherlands in spring 2012. The project started with a research experiment, as a first step in a larger reintroduction program in the Rhine system. All 50 sturgeons were provided with a transponder and a tag to enable to study the migration of each individual. They can be followed by the magnificent Nedap research system in the Rhine, developed to study fish migration.

The first sturgeons

In the beginning of May, the first fish arrived and were released by Princess Laurentien van Oranje during the WWF Annual Conference in Rotterdam, marking the 50^th Anniversary of WWF. A big event, and a very exciting moment for the project. It took a lot of "sweat and blood", but seeing the first sturgeon being released and swimming in the Rhine, was extremely rewarding and an unforgettable moment. It gave an unbelievable feeling to see this magnificent fish returning into his former spawning grounds!

The second release of Atlantic sturgeon took place mid June. This time, it was more relaxed because of less publicity, enabling us to enjoy the moment even more and to take good care of the fish. We released 30 beautiful, strong and vital sturgeons of 1.5 to 2.2 kg, 60-80 cm long. After being in quarantine for three days, we released the sturgeons at a quiet spot along the main river and witnessed them swimming away quietly with strong strokes.

The first release of Atlantic sturgeon in the Rhine system marks a successful rewilding programme that was run for more than 20 years, with a lot of positive impact, both from a conservation and socio-economic point of view, and done by some of the key partners in Rewilding Europe. It’s a remarkable, historic and inspiring experience for other rewilding initiatives in Europe.

For more information, have a look at www.steureninnederland.nl

Bram Houben, ARK Nature

Scaling up in the rewilding areas

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 13:00:00 +0200

Posted by Deli Saavedra on 11 July 2012 - Rewilding Europe aims to rewild at least one million hectares of Europe by 2020, consisting of ten areas, each at least 100,000 ha, which together reflect a wide selection of European regions.

The first five rewilding areas have a wide variety of ecosystems, flora and fauna, but also a high cultural and social diversity. They share a common characteristic - a lot of abandoned land - but the social background can be quite different. Land tenure, local stakeholders, legislation and other social and political aspects differ depending on whether we are in Spain, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Poland or Croatia.

To achieve at least 100,000 hectares of rewilded land in each area it is important to scale up our efforts, using different methods to achieve naturally functioning ecosystems.

In Western Iberia, our partners have acquired land (around 800 hectares in Portugal and 500 in Spain) which is used as a core area for the management activities. Obviously, it is not possible to buy the huge amounts of land needed for rewilding, so the main approach must be signing agreements with neighbouring landowners to develop rewilding activities.

In Spain, Fundación Naturaleza y Hombre (FNYH) is signing agreements with municipalities to manage some communal lands, used formerly to graze, but now partially or totally abandoned. FNYH will assure the maintenance of open areas (important for biodiversity) through natural grazing (cows and horses being the strike force). Private properties on the Spanish side of Western Iberia are large, and agreements will be prepared to encourage rewilding here as well.

In Portugal, with a complex structure of many smaller land holdings (some with unknown owners) it looks more efficient to promote rewilding through agreements with hunting areas and this is what Associaçao Transhumancia e Natureza (ATN) is developing. In many abandoned areas, hunters are the main users of the land, and it is possible to agree on common objectives, as they also want high numbers of hunting species. Setting up non-hunting areas is one of the best methods to increase the density of hunting animals in the buffer zones just outside the core areas.

However, in many Eastern Europe countries most of the land is public, belonging to the state or the local governments. Problems like poaching are often related to the lack of trust in state authorities and legislation, perceived by the locals as a barrier to their involvement in the management of the land. This is the case of the Danube Delta rewilding area, where Rewilding Europe and our local partner, WWF Romania, are working on the creation of Community Conservation Areas.

This kind of management has been implemented mainly in Africa. In Namibia and other countries, legislation allows local communities to create conservancies to benefit from wildlife on communal land, while allowing the local community to work with private companies to create and manage their own tourism market. This is a success system that we want to translate to Europe in the appropriate way.

The Community Conservancy approach is a key factor for moving forward with rewilding. To enable the communities to gain ownership of local wildlife and natural resource use and to benefit financially from those resources is critical for success. The annual income of many households in Danube Delta is no more than 3,000-5,000 euros. In such situations, the reintroduction of missing species is of very limited interest to people, unless the presence of such animals can bring direct monetary benefits and jobs.

The communal ownership of wildlife will probably be one of the best means to reduce poaching, as the perception of fauna will change, from “no one's animals” to “our animals”.

In short, single way to rewild will not work throughout Europe. Rewilding areas should be embedded within the social and cultural fabric of their respective region and the methods of rewilding will be as diverse as European culture and nature.

Big birds and big plans in the Danube delta

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:31:23 +0200

Posted by Staffan Widstrand on 3 July 2012 - Looking back at a fantastic week in the ”Pantanal of Europe”, where I did a photo mission for Rewilding Europe, all well organised by Rewilding Europe’s man on the ground – Cristian Mititelu. Boat trips, canoe trips, horse cart rides, hikes and ultra-light flights through or over the different habitats of this huge and to a great part still pretty wild area. And it is getting wilder...

The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, which is a large part of the more natural areas of the delta, covers 580,000 ha of mainly wetland and sandy soils, sand dunes and open grassland, mixed with some really interesting mosaique woodlands. It is the largest wetland area in Europe and one of our continent’s greatest natural wonders. Although it has suffered pretty badly from overambitious ”management”, ”development” and ”regulations” over the last 200 years, and especially so during the 1970s and 1980s, that phase seems to a great extent have ended now. After the end of the Ceausescu dictatorship most of those ”developments” have ceased to exist, other than as decrepit, decaying concrete buildings and rusty iron structures, ruined dykes and flooded ”agricultural projects”. Slowly the huge delta marshland is moving into a more natural state again, but there is yet a lot to do in order to revive the wilder sides of it and also to increase the human benefits from such a wilder state.

The bird life here is sensational and is probably richer today than many decades back. Herons of at least 8 species line the narrow canals and waterways through the delta, kingfishers dart by, red-footed falcons, hobbies, rollers and bee-eaters sit in the trees along the waters and pelicans of two species ever so often dot the skies in big congregations, flying very stylishly overhead. Bitterns boom, little bitterns hide among the reed stalks and great reed warblers raise their impressively loud and deep voices from the reed beds.

And then there are the frogs – a massive choir of laughing big green and brown frogs from the Pool frog / Marsh frog / Edible frog (Pelophylax lessonae / esculentus / ridibundus) species complex, calling from the deeper waters, and the small Fire-bellied toads calling from the shallower wetlands with their ”half-cuckoo” sounds. Yes, and lots of cuckoos too then, fluting orioles, oop-oop-oop-ing hoopoes, purring turtle doves and the fine tunes from the penduline tits. Pygmy cormorants and great cormorants, avocets and stilts, whiskered terns, black terns, several grebe species, ferruginous ducks, coot, moorhens, mute swans, little owls, short-eared owls, marsh harriers and icterine warblers – the Danube delta is a veritable bird (and a bird-watchers’) Eldorado.

It is also a fish and a sports fisherman’s paradise, with an exceptional fish production capacity and diversity in fish species that is richer than in any other fresh water area in Europe. The home of all of Europe’s largest-sized fish species – for example three sturgeon species, the biggest of them, the Beluga sturgeon, weighing up to 900 kilos, and the catfish, which can count up to 150 kilos.

But where are all the mammals?

After an intensive field week in this optimal habitat, which has not only massive reed beds and swamplands, but also oak and ash and poplar mosaique woodlands, open steppes, grasslands, sand dune areas and long empty beaches – the total of observed wild mammals amounted to no more than two roe deer and one hare! That is less than I could see from my home kitchen window in a suburb of Stockholm, just during breakfast!

Where are the wild boars, the otters, the beavers, the red deer and the bison?

Some of these species are said to still exist here, but that must then be at almost homeopathic population levels, only a tiny, tiny fraction of what would have been natural.

That has to change, the wild mammals really need to be allowed to come back, not just for a fully functional ecosystem to be in place, but at least as much for the business side of things. Which means jobs, income and tax revenue.

Tourism is already by far the biggest business and employment/income generator in the delta. In order to attract more foreign visitors and to sell more higher-priced nature tour products, the mammals have to come back. Only then will the delta become a full wildlife watching attraction. And the place needs to be cleaned up – garbage collected and taken away, old rusty watchtowers (from a disastrously wasteful World Bank project) and ruined concrete buildings removed.

Most people in the delta realise that this could be done easily and quickly, if just the right decisions are taken. It doesn’t even have to be very costly.

Another really interesting thing was that in the delta’s drier land areas, relatively free-ranging large groups of wild horses and wild cattle already exist, which are of very old races/breeds. How closely related these are to the unfortunately extinct tarpan and aurochs remains to be investigated properly, but both the wild horses and the wild-living beef cattle here show several amazingly strong traits from their wild ancestors. Those are probably the largest groups of free-living horses in Europe and the local, sturdy and straight-backed black cattle have white muzzles and grey or brown ”capes” over their backs, very similar to the aurochs from our ancient cave paintings. Especially the ancient local beef cattle race ought to be genetically investigated immediately, something that has direct bearing to the visionary Tauros project, which is trying to restore functional aurochs.

But after discussions with many local people along our travel route, a very worrying and problematic picture arose. A picture of on the one hand a very complicated and cripplingly bureaucratic set of administration structures (with up to 9 different government agencies claiming rights to administer parts of the delta, several of them overlapping each other, often in competition or conflict with each other, and with no less than 7 of them having their own police forces or agents/rangers out there to police the terrain); and on the other hand a massive poaching of fish and wildlife (in spite of all the rangers/police and even worse, witness many, often even directly organised by/through/or with the silent and paid consent of a number of these public officers!), plus very serious corruption also at most other levels of administration, all the way from foresters and up, leading in reality to a sense of zero influence on their own lives by the local people. Everything tends to be seen as decided by someone else, by ”them”, making all honest, fair and normal business very difficult.

Rewilding Europe’s idea about helping to create a couple of large Community Wildlife Conservation areas on the huge, communally owned lands was received by all people we spoke with as a very promising suggestion and something that ought to be explored right away, without any hesitation. Trying thereby to answer the question of how to make wild nature here more valuable to the people who live in or near that nature.

I am really looking forward to see how this develops over the coming years. The Danube delta has true potential to become a world-class wildlife-watching zone.

To see more of the amazing pictures Staffan took during his photo mission, visit our Danube delta gallery.

Wild ideas

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:42:00 +0200

Posted by Johan van de Gronden on 18 June 2012 - Site visits in the company of ecologists tend to be fun. If these ecologists come with a long-term vision on the landscape, the trip becomes wild. I had the pleasure of the company of Frans Schepers and Wouter Helmer in the Velebit mountains of Croatia, when we visited one of Rewilding Europe’s pilot sites, together with staff from the implementing office of WWF’s Mediterranean Programme.

Rewilding Europe is a young organisation with some bold ideas. Where others see threats and decline of habitats, they see opportunities and wildlife comeback. Where most of the conservation movement is aiming to stem biodiversity loss, they are seeking biodiversity gains. Where policy makers desperately try to preserve a rapidly disappearing lifestyle of herders and smallholders in the margins of agricultural Europe, they propose a reintroduction of the aurochs. And where hunters and foresters alike see ‘optimum’ wildlife numbers, they see emptied landscapes with no wildlife to speak of.

The proposition of Rewilding Europe reminds me of the Copernican turn. There is the universe, as we knew it before Copernicus, and a universe after. They don’t look very much alike.

The people of Rewilding Europe draw inspiration from various sources: the wilderness movement in the US and Canada, the spectacular restoration of riparian life in the Dutch delta in the past two decades, the pioneering work of Frans Vera, a Dutch conservation activist, who dedicates his life to proving that a closed canopy forest is not the primordial state of European nature, and an increasing number of studies demonstrating that wildlife numbers in Europe are recovering from their depth in the 1970s.

And they see a business opportunity too. Around 18% of Europe’s land surface enjoys protection under the Natura 2000 governing scheme, yet the budget for proper ecological management of the land is not there. Natura 2000 is becoming the victim of its own success. Europe can no longer afford the detailed management plans now required to protect an often statically defined diversity of species. And what about the millions of hectares of abandoned land across Europe, where small farmers no longer till the soil or their cattle graze the land?

In come the rewilders! With natural grazing as the key ecological process, their idea is stunningly simple. Stop the high intervention, high maintenance type of conservation management and fire up the numbers of roe deer, red deer, wild horses, bison and what have you. Once in place, they take care of themselves, they keep the landscape open, their dazzling numbers will attract scores of tourists and predators will thrive on their prey. Even hunters will be happy, as the spillover in numbers benefits their quota too. More nature, less money spent and alternative income sources for rural people at that.

Too good to be true? I don’t know. It is worth a try. The rewilders will have to rewrite conservation biology here and there as they claim that more than half of Europe’s biodiversity is dependent on half open landscapes. Conventional wisdom claims the opposite for forests. Why the extinct aurochs need to be brought back into the foodweb needs some further explanation too. But it is a wild idea. And it may work!

(Johan van de Gronden is the CEO of WWF Netherlands)

Natural grazing and communication – sharing experiences from the Netherlands

Wed, 30 May 2012 14:53:34 +0200

Posted by Frans Schepers on 30 May 2012 - From 26 to 30 March, Rewilding Europe organized a training seminar in The Netherlands for all the five project teams from the different European countries. The main subject was on natural grazing and communication, as these are two very important and challenging subjects in all our rewilding projects. This was the second training seminar that we organized, after the successful one on conservation enterprise development in Finland in October 2011.

Why The Netherlands? We wanted to focus on natural grazing and communication – a deliberate choice because since more than 20 years, natural grazing has been pioneered in this country, and so has the communication related to this. As a result there is a lot of experience to share, which we wanted to expose the Rewilding Europe project teams to. Because natural grazing offers many communication challenges, we found it very useful to link the communications training to this subject, learning on the job!

During the week we had numerous in-house presentations about these subjects. With the Leperkoen Guesthouse at the Veluwe area as our central base, we went to four different rewilding projects: Oostvaardersplassen Nature Reserve, Veluwezoom National Park, Gelderse Poort (Millingerwaard) and Kraansvlak (near Haarlem). Here, we were guided by and shared experiences with representatives from State Forest Service, ARK Nature, Natuurmonumenten, FREE Nature, Foundation Natural Processes, Taurus Foundation, Flaxfield, Herds & Homelands and many others.

For natural grazing, we focussed on the role of this key natural process in European ecosystems, looking at species like European wild horse, European bison, deer species (red, fallow and roe deer), primitive cattle (like Scottish highlander and Heck cattle), beaver and others. We were also informed on the TaurOs project, which works on ‘’rebuilding the Aurochs’’ (see www.taurosproject.com). The participants learned a lot from practical experiences on how to set up natural grazing projects and manage large herbivore populations in (semi-)natural conditions.

For communication, we discussed our general communication strategy and action plan in much detail, with the aim of every rewilding project developing its own communication strategy in due time. Specifically the challenges of species reintroductions and starting natural grazing projects in the different European countries were subjects to many interesting discussions and debates. During the last day, a training sessions was facilitated by Princess Laurentien van Oranje, kindly hosted by Natuurmonumenten at their main office in ‘s Graveland. This was a particular useful exercise providing a lot of good guidelines and tools on our communication challenges both at the general and the project level.

It was a particularly useful and learningful week, and good for team building as well. Rewilding Europe will continue to organize training and exchange seminars on subjects that are key to us; from now on these will take place in the rewilding areas.

Transhumance: a link to natural migration?

Wed, 16 May 2012 18:00:00 +0200

Posted by Wouter Helmer on 16 May 2012 - Suppose there was a seasonal migration of enormous herds of wild horses, deer, bison and other herbivores in Europe. Thousands of animals that moved from summer pastures in the mountains to sheltered valleys in winter, or from open forests and grassy steppe areas in spring to rivers and other water spots in the dry seasons.

Suppose that large carnivores like lions, leopards and wolves were following these herds. And with them human beings, our ancestors, as hunters of all these animals.

Suppose that men, once they started domesticating herbivores, were looking for ways to feed their herds. Suppose that at least some of these shepherds chose to travel with their herds to places where seasonal food was available. Why should they take a route different from the already existing natural ones?

We don’t know for sure if all this was happening in prehistoric Europe. What we do know, however, is that for millennia shepherds were travelling through the continent, following fixed routes to feed their herds in different seasons. This form of migration, called transhumance, is now disappearing in the European landscape, despite of all kinds of subsidies to save this old practice. It’s disappearing, simply because there are few young people who see themselves spending their lives with a flock of animals travelling all day and night. Their iPods tell them there is a more exciting life in the cities or along the beaches. Is this the end of the great migrations of herbivores on the European continent? Maybe, but maybe not.

Rewilding Europe is interested in the natural migration patterns of large mammals in Europe, simply because we think that this phenomenon plays an important role in structuring and connecting ecosystems. Studies, especially in Africa and North America, support this theory. How can we get evidence of it in Europe? Maybe archaeozoological research can help us.

But we can also study the possible roots of transhumance. Suppose the hypothesis above has a germ of truth in it. Then it would be very interesting to map all the known routes of transhumance in Europe as an indication where the former natural migration routes were situated.

Are there any European students who want to unravel this story? Rewilding Europe is looking for possibilities to restore the natural migration routes of large mammals, at first in our five project areas. We will therefore fully support such a study, as it could be the start of the development of these routes on our continent.