The reintroduction of another European bison herd in the Southern Carpathians rewilding area continues efforts to establish a viable, free-roaming population of this keystone species. This will further increase the benefits to both wild nature and local communities.

Today the ever-growing European Rewilding Network is amplifying the impact of rewilding by connecting rewilding initiatives right across Europe. The recent addition of the Uist Forest Retreat in Scotland takes the number of network members to 69.

Rewilding Sweden has been carrying out river restoration work in Swedish Lapland since 2016. Newly funded efforts will now focus on removing barriers from the River Abramsån, promising benefits for migratory fish, local communities and wild nature.

How can the ongoing decline of European wild nature be reversed? A key paper published last week by the European Habitats Forum (including Rewilding Europe) outlines reasons why the EU’s current Biodiversity Strategy is failing and presents joint recommendations for the strategy post 2020.

Nature is our best ally in mitigating the scale and impact of climate change. Read the feature story ‘A Climate of Change’ in our new Annual Review 2018 to find out how rewilding contributes by creating healthier, better-connected, more resilient ecosystems. The article is one of the 10 feature stories in the review showcasing the progress Rewilding Europe made last year.

So far 72 griffon vulture chicks have hatched in the Rhodope Mountains rewilding area this year – seven more than in 2018. A milestone success for the local rewilding team, this record-breaking result represents another positive step forward in the Balkan-based comeback of these magnificent birds.

Rewilding Europe completed its first ever translocation of water buffalo last week, with a herd of seven animals successfully released on Ermakov Island in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta. The hefty herbivores will create and maintain a mosaic landscape on the island – thereby supporting the area’s dynamic, wild nature – as well as driving development of local nature-based tourism.

Chrysoula, a juvenile black vulture fitted with a GPS transmitter, recently made a 3200-kilometre, 17-day journey over the Balkans. Her incredible aerial circuit gives the Rhodope Mountains rewilding team new insight into vulture behaviour and will help ongoing vulture conservation efforts in the area.

Filmed by French production company Bonne Pioche and broadcast on Franco-German TV network ARTE, the documentary provides a comprehensive overview of European rewilding, with extensive coverage of Rewilding Europe’s work.

In the current issue of leading journal Science, an international team of researchers calls for a shift toward the dynamic, process-led restoration where nature takes much more care of itself. They present a science-based framework for rewilding as an effective way of helping degraded ecosystems regenerate and sustain themselves.