We are happy to announce that the ongoing cooperation between Rewilding Europe and the WILD Foundation has now been formalized in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

We are very happy to announce that the Swedish Postcode Lottery has decided to support our initiative for the coming two years, in our endeavors to make Europe a wilder place!

The two pilot projects of Rewilding Europe in Romania – Danube Delta and South-West Carpathians – were successfully launched in the autumn. One of the initial aspects was to look into the opportunities for the return of beavers, red deer and the European bison. Potential products linked to rewilding enterprise developments in the Danube Delta, providing support for both local communities as well as nature conservation investments, were also identified.

Rewilding Europe has started with the design of a Wildlife Recovery Programme, focusing on large herbivores to start with. A working group of dedicated specialists, Rewilding Europe’s Wildlife Team, has prepared an overview of all the wildlife restocking and reintroduction plans that we have developed for the five projects. Four species were selected to focus on: European bison, European wild horse, Aurochs and kulan.

We are very proud to announce that Laurentien van Oranje-Nassau (the Netherlands) and Dr. Claude Martin (Switzerland) have become Special Advisors for Rewilding Europe. Both are the first members of a small and dedicated team of Special Advisors that Rewilding Europe is establishing.

Today an article was published in “Trouw”, a Dutch daily newspaper. The article is about the remarkable phenomenon of land abandonment, wildlife comeback and the unique chance to create new wild areas with new economic perspectives in Europe. Trouw journalist Hans Marijnissen  interviewed Managing Director Frans Schepers.

In the summer of 2011 Anke Sparmann, author of German GEO Magazine, travelled across European nature reserves.

A 12-page story was published in the September issue of the National Geographic Magazine, Dutch/Belgian edition. NGM Staff writer Pancras Dijk visited the rewilding areas Campanarios de Azaba and Faia Brava in Western Iberia, both parts of the Rewilding Europe initiative. The opening spread can be seen here.

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.