An ongoing study in the Affric Highlands rewilding landscape in Scotland has found that rewilding is having a positive impact on black grouse numbers. Collaborative efforts between local volunteers, estates, and other organisations offers hope that this iconic bird can bounce back after years of decline.
Supported by Rewilding Europe, nature-based tourism company Wildlife Adventures has grown spectacularly over the last nine years, with burgeoning benefits for nature and communities in Italy’s Central Apennines. Such support can help similar European businesses follow in the company’s footsteps.
This July, educational camps were organised in the Danube Delta and Southern Carpathians rewilding landscapes in Romania. A wide range of engaging activities, complemented by memorable wildlife encounters, immersed the children in nature and gave them an appreciation for rewilding and its benefits.
Encouraging and enabling people to live alongside bears and other wildlife in the Central Apennines of Italy is critical to the recovery of local nature. By fostering dialogue and collaborative solutions, bear-smart community committees will help to promote such coexistences across the landscape.
A loan from Rewilding Europe Capital will help Spanish start-up Nemétona to manufacture sustainable wooden construction panels, using timber sourced from forests in the Iberian Highlands. The company’s business model will benefit nature, climate, and local communities.
The recovery of nature in Croatia’s Velebit Mountains is enabling an economic shift from hunting to wildlife watching. By putting cameras in the hands of local students, and enabling them to connect with their natural environment, a recent photography workshop highlighted the social benefits of this transition.
In the Oder Delta, which is shared between Germany and Poland, many rivers have been negatively impacted by human intervention. Recent river restoration work carried out by the local rewilding team and partners on the Polish side is reinvigorating two tributaries of the Ina River, with benefits for nature and people.
Pioneering French NGO Vautours en Baronnies is working to restore populations of all four European vulture species in the southwestern French Alps. Membership of the European Rewilding Network will enable the team to share knowledge, enhancing the comeback of these magnificent, ecologically important birds across the continent.
Rewilding efforts are now supporting wildlife comeback in Portugal’s Greater Côa Valley. The first of a network of wildlife watching hides has just opened in the landscape, providing visitors with an exciting window onto this recovery and supporting the development of nature-based tourism.
The European wildcat is in danger of extinction in Portugal. The first confirmed sighting of a wildcat within a Greater Côa Valley rewilding site is therefore great news, highlighting the importance of landscape restoration efforts and targeted population support measures.