In Rewilding Europe’s new Annual Review, Managing Director Frans Schepers outlines how scaling up rewilding can address some of our most pressing environmental, economic and social challenges.

Earlier this year Raquel Filgueiras took over from Wouter Helmer as Rewilding Europe’s Head of Rewilding. We caught up with Raquel to find out a little more about her and her aspirations.

Today rewilding is playing an increasingly important role connecting younger generations with wild nature. Romanian schoolchildren in Rewilding Europe’s Southern Carpathians rewilding areas recently celebrated Earth Hour and International Bird Day, strengthening their bond with local populations of birds and reintroduced bison.

Exciting times for rewilding in Western Iberia, with a new five-year initiative combining two, complementary project funds – “LIFEWolFlux” and “Scaling Up Rewilding in Western Iberia” – starting at the beginning of this year.

As an inspirational, ambitious and pragmatic approach to conservation, rewilding is now reaching out to and captivating a growing number of people across Europe. Rewilding Europe caught up with Pete Cairns, project director of SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, to discuss the issue of rewilding-themed communications.

Rewilding Europe has now completed its seventh year since foundation in 2011. In this message, Rewilding Europe’s managing director presents 12 showcase stories from 2018, and looks ahead to the next seven years – taking our burgeoning initiative through to 2025.

This autumn, WWF Taskforce member Bianca Ștefănuț was part of a team helping to develop nature-based tourism in the Southern Carpathians rewilding area. Here she relates her memorable experience.

Elitsa Kapushev is a Bulgarian student at the University of Berlin. Visiting an Iranian summer school focused on the environment in August, she chose to present the work of the Rewilding Rhodopes team.

Rewilding isn’t only about nature – it’s about people too. The support, trust and passion of local communities will always be vital to the success of rewilding projects, regardless of scale and location. Gaining that support means ensuring that people can earn a fair living from the wild, and reaching out and building relationships through effective stakeholder communication.

A succession of European Erasmus+ students are now volunteering with Italian NGO Salviamo l’Orso. As they make an invaluable contribution to Marsican brown bear conservation in the Central Apennines rewilding area, they are also learning from their experience.