Programme

09:30 Welcome and introduction – Liesbeth Bakker

10:00 Rewilding: A new narrative in conservation – Paul Jepson

Rewilding is an ecosystem restoration approach. What makes it different from traditional conservation or other restoration approaches? Paul will address the narrative of rewilding to answer this question.

10:40 Rewilding European landscapes – Frans Schepers

There is a historic opportunity in Europe for rewilding landscapes at scale. Many initiatives are making progress demonstrating how rewilding benefits nature and people. Frans will give the latest insights and will make the case for scaling up this new approach in restoration.

11:35 Mapping rewilding opportunities in Europe – Nestor Fernandez

Using remote sensing techniques and modelling to map land-use changes in Europe, Nestor will show us where in Europe the opportunities are to perform large-scale nature recovery using a rewilding approach.

12:30 Lunch break

13:00 Rewilding in action: showing of the short film ‘Zimbrul’

‘Zimbrul’ (Romanian for “bison”) is a candid nine-minute documentary by award-winning French filmmaker and photographer Emmanuel Rondeau, which beautifully captures the people’s perspective on the bison reintroduction in the Southern Carpathians by Rewilding Europe and WWF Romania.

13:15 Restoring the role of megafauna in European ecosystems – Jens-Christian Svenning

Large wild animals, the megafauna, have largely disappeared from European landscapes. Jens-Christian addresses how their return may contribute to ecosystem and biodiversity restoration.

14:10 How to measure rewilding success? – Patrick Jansen

Rewilding aims to restore self-governing ecosystems. Patrick will talk about how the progress in ecosystem restoration can be measured, including monitoring techniques as well as study design.

15:05 Tea/coffee break

15:20 Connecting rewilding science and practice – Liesbeth Bakker

To restore ecosystems, a rewilding approach is increasingly applied. Liesbeth addresses what science can learn from rewilding practice and how science may support the practice of ecosystem restoration.

16:15 Closing remarks