Today, 20 European conservation organisations including Rewilding Europe,  present a joint paper called ‘Action for Biodiversity in the EU and the Fitness Check of the Birds and Habitat Directives’. The joint paper, which was developed under the umbrella of the European Habitats Forum states that the Fitness Check evidence is crystal clear – the Birds and Habitat Directives are fit for purpose and there is no case for “merging and modernising” them.

In the early autumn of 2015, Rewilding Europe carried out a major attitude and knowledge assessment about rewilding, biodiversity and Natura 2000 network in eight rewilding areas. The assessment covered seven European countries: Portugal, Croatia, Italy, Romania, Poland, Germany and Bulgaria. The results are encouraging; people living in and around these eight rewilding areas understand and support the concept of rewilding, are aware about the problems of biodiversity loss and endorse the comeback of wildlife species.

On Friday 16^th October, the arrival of a herd of bovines to the Danube Delta rewilding area marked the launch of the third breeding site of the Tauros Programme. After a complex logistical operation and a very long barge cruise down the Danube River, the animals arrived safely at the breeding site location, receiving a warm welcome by the new herd managers and Sfântu Gheorghe local community.

Today, Rewilding Europe warmly welcomes three sites in The Netherlands as new members of the European Rewilding Network (ERN). Natuurmonumenten, the largest nature organisation in the Netherlands, has proposed these three sites where great progress is made with rewilding. The areas are the Deelerwoud/Veluwezoom (province of Gelderland), the Drents-Friese Wold (province of Friesland and Drenthe) and the Dutch part of the Kempen~Broek (province of Limburg and Noord-Brabant), in the border area with Belgium.

Rewilding Europe started its initiative in 2011 with a substantial grant from the Dutch Postcode Lottery for the project “Green Treasures of Europe”. This special project grant was received from the Dutch Postcode Lottery through ARK Nature, one of the initiating partners of Rewilding Europe. After four years of working in partnership with ARK Nature (2011–2014), the project was recently officially approved and closed by the Dutch Postcode Lottery.

Rewilding Europe and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation officially signed a partnership agreement, to identify and conduct joint projects in line with both organisations’ fields of interest and geographical priorities. The signing ceremony took place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, in the presence of HSH the Prince of Monaco, alongside the Eighth Award Ceremony of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the world premiere screening of ‘Les Saisons’, the latest documentary movie produced by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud to rediscover the European lands that we have shared with wild animals from the last ice age until the present day.

Today, Rewilding Europe and the Artists for Nature Foundation have officially started cooperation by signing a Memorandum of Understanding. Both organizations have identified synergies and complementarities between their vision, mission and activities and have agreed to explore working together. Combining art and rewilding – at a first glance this is maybe an unexpected connection, but if one looks in more detail it is evident and inspiring.

The European Commission has approved the LIFE proposal “Conservation of Black and Griffon vultures in the cross-border Rhodope Mountains”, developed by Rewilding Europe in partnership with Rewilding Rhodopes Foundation, Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds/Birdlife Bulgaria, WWF Greece, Vulture Conservation Foundation and Hellenic Ornithological Society/BirdLife Greece.

On September 17^th, the seventh web-based seminar of the European Rewilding Network took place and this time members from several rewilding sites in Europe discussed how to restore food chains and the ways rewilding contributes to this. The webinar specifically addressed the crucial importance of dead animals in nature and consequently the chances for scavengers feeding upon them, all to restore natural food chains in our European ecosystems: the Circle of Life.

Today, Wouter Helmer, co-founder and Rewilding Director of Rewilding Europe, received a prestigious Dutch conservation award, the ‘Groeneveld Award’ (Groeneveldprijs) at the Groeneveld Castle in Baarn, the Netherlands. The award council report describes Wouter Helmer as ‘an instigator of modern ecology, a brilliant and connecting thinker and a great communicator.