A new film by award-winning French videographer Emmanuel Rondeau will premiere online on World Rewilding Day 2026. “The Danube Delta and the Healing Power of Nature” tells the story of how rewilding is helping one of Europe’s most remarkable landscapes recover, while offering hope and renewal to Ukrainian people living through the impacts of war.
World Rewilding Day 2026: #ChooseOurFuture
Every year on 20 March, people and organisations around the world celebrate the growing rewilding movement on World Rewilding Day. This year’s theme — #ChooseOurFuture — highlights the power of the choices we make today to shape a better tomorrow — one where wild nature and people flourish together.
Across Europe and beyond, the positive impact of rewilding is showing that a wilder future is not only possible, but within our reach. By scaling up the restoration of natural processes and giving nature the space and freedom to recover, we can build landscapes and seascapes that are richer in life, more resilient, and better able to support thriving communities.
To mark this year’s celebration, Rewilding Europe presents the online premiere of a new documentary that brings this message to life in one of Europe’s most extraordinary wetland and steppe landscapes: the Danube Delta — a place where rewilding is helping nature and people move forward as one, despite the challenges of war.
A new chapter in the Wilder Europe series
“The Danube Delta and the Healing Power of Nature” is the sixth documentary in the Wilder Europe series, produced by award-winning French videographer Emmanuel Rondeau with financial support from law firm Hogan Lovells. Through striking imagery and intimate storytelling, the series shares inspirational rewilding stories from across the Rewilding Europe’s landscape portfolio.
In May 2025, Emmanuel spent ten days in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta rewilding landscape with the Rewilding Ukraine team and local partners. His journey took him from Ermakiv Island to the Tarutino Steppe, where a variety of long-term rewilding actions are bringing wetlands and grasslands back to life — from removing dykes and dams to restore the natural flow of water, to releasing large grazers such as water buffalo and Konik horses to open up landscapes and boost biodiversity.
The healing power of nature
The central themes of Emmanuel’s documentary are healing and hope. In the Danube Delta, rewilding is helping nature rebound by bringing back natural dynamics, restoring habitats, and supporting the return of wildlife. But it is also helping people heal too.
In recent years, the delta has become a place where people can reconnect with nature in deeply meaningful ways. For Ukrainian war veterans in particular, time spent in this resurgent landscape has shown how nature can support emotional recovery. In a country marked by uncertainty, conflict, and trauma, wild nature can offer space to reflect, reset, and begin again — offering hope in these troubled times.
“The idea to bring veterans and their families to our rewilding areas such as Ermakiv Island was born around 18 months ago,” explains Rewilding Ukraine team leader Oleg Dyakov. “I am extremely happy that they are now able to do this.
“I will never forget the voices of one group when they saw water buffalo and Konik horses in the delta for the first time. I understood that being in wild nature allowed them to forget about any problems — and that they could take a feeling of hope and calmness back home with them when they left.”
Join the online premiere
The online premiere of “The Danube Delta and the Healing Power of Nature” will take place on 20 March at 1600 CET, as part of Rewilding Europe’s World Rewilding Day celebrations.
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A pre-recorded Q & A session will be shown directly after the premiere, featuring Emmanuel Rondeau and Oleg Dyakov. A Ukrainian-language premiere will also take place, with details to follow.
Bringing the story home
The new documentary will also be shared through a series of local premieres in the delta itself. In the city of Vylkove, a screening for children and adults will take place on 18 March, followed by a second premiere in the community of Borodino on 20 March.
These screenings will be followed by Q & A sessions for adults, and by presentations and workshops for children led by the team. In total, around 250 children are expected to take part in the premieres across both communities. A separate closed screening for partners will also be held at the Danube Biosphere Reserve office in Vylkove on 20 March.
An outdoor photo exhibition will accompany the premieres, giving local people another opportunity to connect with the rewilding story. Featuring 32 photographs that showcase nature recovery, wildlife, and landscapes, the exhibition will be displayed in Vylkove from 16 to 18 March, before moving to the Borodino community from 19 to 29 March.
Choosing a wilder future for the Danube Delta
Emmanuel’s documentary shows that rewilding is about far more than conservation. It is about renewing relationships — between rivers and floodplains, between people and place, and between human wellbeing and the vitality and resilience of the natural world. The story told in the film is part of a much larger journey.
In 2026, rewilding work in the Danube Delta will continue with plans to further improve the natural flow of water across more than 8,000 hectares of wetlands, restore forests, carry out additional deer and eagle owl reintroductions, and monitor the health of recovering ecosystems. Across the wider landscape, efforts will also continue to restore the Tarutino Steppe and strengthen natural grazing, with planned reintroductions of kulan, marmots, hamsters, and sousliks, alongside ongoing work to help people and wildlife share space.
Community engagement will remain central to these efforts, through education, tourism, and other nature-based activities. The ongoing Nature for Veterans programme, youth outreach, and support for nature-based economies will help ensure that people remain at the heart of the rewilding story. This is what #ChooseOurFuture means in practice: by choosing rewilding today, we can help create a future where rivers run free, wildlife returns, and people and nature thrive together. In the Danube Delta, this future is already beginning to unfold.
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