Rewilding Europe is beginning to offer opportunities for internships within the field of rewilding and nature conservation topics, starting in the summer of 2014 in four of our rewilding areas: Danube Delta (Romania), Southern Carpathians (Romania), Velebit (Croatia) and Western Iberia (Spain/Portugal).
Today, 17 European bison were released into the wild in Romania’s Southern Carpathian Mountains. They were invited here by the people of the Municipality of Armeniș, who have set aside a large part of their communal land for wildlife. The animals came from wildlife parks and breeding stations across Europe – from Sweden in the north to central Italy. In all a complicated logistical operation, arranged by Rewilding Europe and its partner WWF Romania. The largest-ever bison reintroduction in Europe.
Rewilding Europe is excited to announce that on 25 March 2014, the Supervisory Board accepted Odile Rodríguez de la Fuente as a new board member. Odile was already supporting our initiative as a Special Advisor, but is now going to take a more active role and a responsibility in our initiative through her new role.
Stoycho Stoychev, a nature conservation colleague from the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds is one of the winners of the 2014 Whitley Awards. The 2014 Whitley Awards Ceremony was held on the 8th of May at The Royal Geographical Society in London, hosted by Kate Humble and the awards presented to the winners by HRH The Princess Royal.
On May 17, Europe’s largest living wild land mammal, the European bison, will be brought back to the Țarcu Mountains in the Southern Carpathians rewilding area, in Romania. It has been extinct from the area for 200 years. About 20 European bison will be brought here from several European countries. Later on this summer 10 more will be taken here. This is the biggest-ever bison reintroduction and transportation to have taken place in Europe.
Joep van de Vlasakker from Rewilding Europe was one of the passionate speakers at the TEDxEroilor event in Romanian Cluj-Napoca recently, talking about the fascinating European bison. “Challenging minds” was the theme of this fifth edition of TEDx here, and Joep did precisely that, challenging and amazing the specially invited members of the audience with a number of bison stories. He started with “Once upon a time”, and ended with “Coming soon, to a place near you”.
Ten enthusiastic locals from the Southern Carpathians in Romania, participated in the first nature guide training event organised by Rewilding Europe, in April in the village of Armeniș.
The small municipalities of Gioia dei Marsi and Lecce nei Marsi in the Central Apennines have decided to bet on nature and to find new ways to earn money from the wilderness on their own “door step”. Creating new opportunities for local businesses and at the same time ensuring an even better protection of those areas. Land abandonment and depopulation are problems that hundreds of regional and EU initiatives so far have failed to solve, in spite of uncountable amounts in subsidies. But now, thanks to the beginning return of wild nature, these problems could instead be made into opportunity. Gioia dei Marsi and Lecce nei Marsi give a good example how the problems are turned into opportunities.
The first experience sharing event organised by the European Rewilding Network took place on April 10. During the webinar, which as its name implies is a web-based seminar, many valuable experiences from rewilding were exchanged between members of the Network.
Twelve Boskarin cattle (five cows, five heifers and two calves) were transported at the end of March to the Tauros programme breeding site in the Velebit mountains in Croatia. According to the latest information the animals are doing well at their new home. This is the first time Boskarin cattle have been brought to Velebit. It is a part of the rewilding efforts by Rewilding Europe and the Tauros programme’s plans to de-domesticate or rewild primaeval cattle breeds back to get close to its original form: the aurochs. Because the ecosystems really need this animal.