In the last months Anke Sparmann, author of German GEO Magazine, travelled across European nature reserves. The cover story of GEO’s September issue – published on August 19 – features her journey into a continent getting wilder day by day.

Our ambitious initiative to rewild 1 million hectares of land in Europe by 2020 is now well underway and our local partners are starting up a series of concrete rewilding actions in the field and negotiating with the different stakeholders on many levels.

The Zoological Society of London has commenced a study for Rewilding Europe to examine the population trends of wildlife in Europe over the past 30–40 years. This has been an era of significant wildlife comeback.

Rewilding Europe is pleased to announce the formation of an exciting partnership with Conservation Capital, a unique conservation organisation which focuses exclusively on linking private sector business and investment finance with global biodiversity conservation.

Frans Schepers, Rewilding Europes managing director, was guest in Dutch television show “Koffietijd” (“Coffee Time”). “Koffietijd” is broadcasted daily. Presenter Quinty Trustful asked Frans about the plans of Rewilding Europe and about the importance of the Dutch Postcode Lottery. Land abandonment and restoring natural processes were also mentioned as important aspects of the plans.

Dutch National Postcode Lottery supports Rewilding Europe with 3,1 million euros.

On 15 November 2010 the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) published a report on farmland abandonment in the EU. In the report is stated that in the last decades substantial areas of the EU have been affected by abandonment. And a mid-range estimate shows abandonment up to an amount of 168,000 km2 of land by 2030.