On September 10, Rewilding Europe took off with the Bison Rewilding Action Plan, an important step for the restoration of bison in Europe.

Rewilding Europe is very excited to announce the formal establishment of the Supervisory Board, which has come into function last month. The Executive Board has managed to find very experienced individuals from different parts of Europe, with different backgrounds and key-competencies that are strongly complementary.

The landmark outdoor photo exhibition, “Wild Wonders of Europe” is coming to El Retiro Park in central Madrid, Spain on Tuesday, 25th September 2012.

The Dutch TV company Endemol filmed Staffan Widstrand, Marketing Director of Rewilding Europe, guiding the Dutch TV presenter Martijn Krabbé on an action-filled visit to the Western Iberia rewilding area, for the TV programme “Kanjers Van Goud” (“Heroes of Gold”). This TV programme is connected to the Dutch Postcode Lottery, and will be broadcasted later this year.

The Iberian lynx conservation efforts are giving very good results this year. 60 cubs were born in five breeding facilities in Spain and Portugal this spring, and 44 are still alive. This is the highest number of gestated pups from the beginning of the ex-situ breeding program and gives a total of 115 cubs since 2005.

“Insights from the pedigree on the social structure of free-roaming Konik horses (Equus caballus) in a Dutch reserve” by prof. Amos Bouskila, dept. of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.

As rewilding is gaining popularity across Europe, it is important that scientific research follows, to answer at least some of the many questions that arise: how and to what extend can we reintroduce natural processes in larger ecosystems, what animals to reintroduce and where, how will they fit in the existing ecosystems, how do we know what the former wild Europe really looked like, how does rewilding relate to other types of conservation management, just to mention a few.

Rewilding Europe welcomes the publication of one of the first scientific papers on rewilding and land abandonment in Europe, written by Laetitia M. Navarro and Henrique M. Pereira. The article suggests a fourth option of land management policy in addition to agricultural intensification, extensification and afforestation – rewilding.

A herd of 24 Retuerta horses, coming from the Doñana biological station in southern Spain, were released in the Campanarios de Azaba reserve on July 27. The release was possible thanks to the Rewilding Europe initiative and the collaboration between the Nature and Man Foundation and the Doñana Biological Station.

Bornholm island in Denmark welcomed seven bison from Poland in the beginning of June. One male and six females where brought to the island by ferry. The animals will live in a 200 ha fence for five years, then a decision is made whether to let them roam freely.