One year ago the European bison, the largest land mammal on our continent, returned to its old haunts in the Southern Carpathians. One year later, during a second major release event on 12 and 13 June last week, the number of animals doubled as a next step to create a viable population of free roaming bison in this Natura 2000 site.
On June 6, HSH Princess Theodora von Liechtenstein and HSH Prince Alexander von Liechtenstein visited Romania with the Green Teen Team Foundation to launch a school programme with young students from Armenis and Teregova, together with Rewilding Europe and WWF Romania. Theodora is the founder of the foundation whose objective is to help to save endangered species of plants and animals to conserve our planet’s biodiversity. This is done, in part, by empowering children to be able to make changes to their lives, consequently the lives of others and the life of the planet.
Three fantastic wildlife trips to Bulgaria, Poland and Sweden were matched with their lucky winners at a draw of the Rewilding Europe Travel Club taking place in Bulgaria last Saturday. The Grand Prize winner of the June 2015 Travel Club was drawn by Lena M. Lindén, Rewilding Europe Supervisory Board member. Stoycho Stoychev, team leader of the Rhodope Mountains rewilding area and Betty Vasileva, Bulgarian entrepreneur and owner of the Wild Farm, drew the second and third prizes.
The celebration of the 15th anniversary of Associação Transumância e Natureza (ATN) on 12–14 June will mark the great progress that has been made with rewilding of the Côa Valley in the Portuguese part of the Western Iberia rewilding area. Among others, the Faia Brava Star Camp will be launched, a simple and imaginative bush camp beautifully located in the reserve, developed by local entrepreneurs with technical, financial and promotional support from Rewilding Europe.
Rewilding Europe and WWF Romania are thrilled to announce the second release of European bison to take place in the Southern Carpathians rewilding area on 12 and 13 June 2015. The herd brought into the acclimatisation area last year will be released into the wild, becoming the first bison to roam freely in the Southern Carpathians for over 200 years. In addition, a new herd of 18 European bison, originating from six different wildlife centres in Europe will arrive in Romania to be brought into the acclimatization area.
On Tuesday 19th May, the release of a herd counting 23 Bosnian mountain horses marked the start of an exciting natural grazing pilot in 500 hectares of the spectacular Lika Plains in the Velebit rewilding area. Guests from Adessium Foundation, Rogier van der Weerd and Floris van Hest together with Frans Schepers, Managing Director of Rewilding Europe, jointly cut the Croatian coloured ribbon, symbolising the opening of the site and releasing the animals.
In its third Annual Review, Rewilding Europe reports back on its achievements in 2014. Building a sound base during the first three years of the initiative to create lasting results in the longer term, started to pay off in various ways. Significant milestones and tangible results were achieved within the three main pillars of Rewilding Europe: rewilding, enterprise and communication.
At its meeting on 16 April, the European Habitat Forum welcomed Rewilding Europe as new member. The European Habitats Forum assembles leading European nature conservation organisations to provide advice on the implementation and future development of EU biodiversity policy, including improving integration into sectoral policies.
Three fantastic wildlife trips in the June 2015 draw of the Rewilding Europe Travel Club are awaiting their lucky winners to bring them to Bulgaria, Poland or Sweden.
We have experienced that there is a lot of interest with students in topics that Rewilding Europe is addressing within its initiative.