This Wednesday, President Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU Commission have confirmed that the EU’s flagship nature laws – the Birds and Habitats Directives – will be saved and not rewritten and weakened, ending two years of uncertainty over the laws’ future. They have also called for a plan to better implement and enforce these laws. This is a win for the record half a million people who called on the Commission to save and enforce these laws as part of the Europe-wide NatureAlert campaign.

This November, Rewilding Europe participated at the conference ‘Innovative Financing Mechanisms for Biodiversity’ that took place in Beijing, China. The conference, organized by the European Commission and France-based environmental specialists Biotope, gathered Chinese and international conservationists and various experts from the field of nature-based economics.

Funded through the Krombacher Brewery Species Conservation Project, the Oder Delta team has started to work on improving the breeding and feeding habitats of the lesser spotted eagle. The work started this spring is a great example of how a company can support nature conservation and rewilding.

Rewilding Europe warmly welcomes three new members into the European Rewilding Network (ERN). These new members are rewilding initiatives from Ukraine, Finland and Portugal. Since its launch at WILD10 in Salamanca in October 2013, the network doubled in size and is now counting 42 members from 22 European countries and eight areas of Rewilding Europe.

During the last few weeks, 11 black vultures were equipped with satellite transmitters in Dadia National Park, in the Greek part of the Rhodope Mountains. These transmitters will provide important scientific data about the distribution, movements and possible threats, which will further help identify future conservation actions for the species in this region. These actions are part of the LIFE Vultures project.

Last Friday, the LIFE project “Urgent actions for the recovery of European Bison populations in Romania” (LIFE Bison) held its opening ceremony at the “Grigore Antipa” Natural History Museum in Bucharest, Romania. The project works to build a viable population of the European bison in the Tarçu Mountains Natura 2000 site in the Southern Carpathians. The event also marked the opening of the exhibition “The largest land mammal in Europe returns to the Southern Carpathian wilderness”, hosted by the Museum and open to public until end of November.

This summer, seven griffon vultures – four adults and three young – were fitted with satellite transmitters in the breeding colony near Madzarhovo in the Bulgarian Rhodope Mountains. The first interesting results about their movements are already being revealed, with one young bird undertaking a long journey to the southeast. The vulture flew across two continents and six countries, and is still exploring the hot Middle Eastern territories.

This October, Rewilding Rhodopes organized a special training course on the management and development of wildlife watching enterprise and wildlife photography in Madzharovo, Bulgaria. The training was part of the LIFE Project “Conservation of black and griffon vultures in Rhodope Mountains” (LIFE Vultures), and connected more than 30 participants that gained valuable knowledge, exchanged experiences and ideas.

We are thrilled to announce that last week, the Board of Directors of the Dutch Postcode Lottery decided to continue its cooperation with Rewilding Europe. Based on a formal evaluation completed this year, the Board made this positive decision which means that Rewilding Europe will continue to receive financial support for the period 2017–2021. Since 2011, Rewilding Europe received 2 million Euro from the Dutch Postcode Lottery. This support has shown to be instrumental for our initiative.

Just after we officially launched the first Anti-Poison Dog Unit last week, Bulgaria witnessed a serious new case of poisoning in the Eastern Rhodopes close to the Greek border. In just a few days time, seven wolves, five shepherd dogs, one wild boar, two foxes, one hedgehog and one stone marten were found near a poisoned bait. A griffon vulture was also considered as a casualty of poisoning.