The Iberian Highlands of Spain have struggled with rural depopulation and economic decline for many years. Today, rewilding is helping communities in the landscape turn these challenges into new opportunities — creating jobs, supporting local businesses, and enabling nature to become a powerful driver of local prosperity.

In the Affric Highlands of Scotland, a growing coalition of landowners, residents, businesses, and other stakeholders is driving nature recovery across the landscape. Two new official partners — including Glen Affric National Nature Reserve — will strengthen these efforts, amplifying the benefits for biodiversity, climate, and communities.

Europe’s protected areas have long played a vital role protecting wildlife and habitats. Building on this legacy, the Wilder Parks initiative will harness the power of rewilding to take this work a step further — giving natural processes more space and freedom to restore ecosystems and amplifying the benefits they provide for nature, climate, and people.

Healthy, living rivers sustain people and nature. By removing dams, reflooding wetlands, reversing channelisation, and releasing wildlife, Rewilding Europe and its partners are revitalising rivers in rewilding landscapes across the continent.

Across the world, grasslands play a vital role absorbing and locking up carbon in their vegetation and soils. Recent research from the Tarutino Steppe in Ukraine shows how rewilding can revitalise grasslands, improving soil fertility and enhancing their carbon storage potential.

Cinereous vultures have recently been released in the Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria and the Iberian Highlands of Spain. Their return marks an important step forward in rewilding Europe’s skies — supporting the comeback of the species in Europe, strengthening the circle of life, and delivering lasting benefits to local communities.

Marking a major milestone for the global rewilding movement, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has released a comprehensive set of rewilding guidelines. Designed to accelerate nature recovery, they provide a clear roadmap for everyone working to restore healthy, self-sustaining ecosystems in line with rewilding principles.

Rewilding efforts are enhancing the remarkable biodiversity of Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains. Helping nature-positive businesses in the landscape turn ecological wins into unforgettable visitor experiences can deliver a more hopeful future for local communities and amplify wildlife comeback.

The Rewilding Ukraine team have just released a herd of seven fallow deer into the wild on the Tarutino Steppe. This exciting and long-awaited step towards a wilder landscape will deliver a range of benefits to nature and local communities.

Spanish photographer Jon A. Juárez has scooped this year’s Rewilding Europe Award, which celebrates some of the most striking rewilding-related imagery from across the continent. His winning photo, depicting the groundbreaking release of an Atlantic sturgeon in Sweden, illustrates the power of rewilding to breathe new life into landscapes and seascapes.