“A little to the left,” says Adrian. “No, stop!” screams the other Adrian. Petru, the Major of the county of Armensis, steps on the brake — just in time!

For the vision of Europe as a wilder place to succeed, with much more spaces for nature and wildlife, it is crucially important that new generations also get the opportunity to discover, feel and respect nature.

It’s such a joy to see your kindreds succeed and walk their talk! Some months ago, when I met Cristian Ilea, he was talking about the storks and the live video stream and the difficulties of such an enterprise and… and I, for one, was vaguely tired of big words and shiny futures of never happening ideas.

You could be forgiven for imagining there was little true wildness and wilderness left in Europe, and you’d be wrong, as the Trail to Salamanca will increasingly reveal in weeks and months to come.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?