The Central Apennines (Italy) was announced as the sixth area within Rewilding Europe today during WILD 10, the World Wilderness Congress in Salamanca, Spain (4–10 October). The Central Apennines, known as “the Wild Heart of Italy” is a perfect example of a rewilding area that is very close to a big city. This the newest of our rewilding areas is only an hour and a half’s drive from Rome.
Among planned rewilding actions are bear, wolf and vulture watching and the creation of “no-take zones”.
This is the sixth rewilding site in Europe to serve as model, beside the first five selected: the Danube Delta and the Southern Carpathians in Romania, the Eastern Carpathians in Slovakia and Poland, Velebit in Croatia and Western Iberia in Spain and Portugal.
Three further rewilding areas have also been nominated and will hopefully soon become part of the Rewillding Europe initiative. These are: Greater Laponia (Sweden), the Odra Delta (Germany and Poland) and the Thracian Mountains (Bulgaria). The above areas have been selected from of a total of over 30 nominations by local organizations. The 10th and final rewilding area is still open for nominations.
The reintroduction of European bison, beaver and wild horses, the comeback of the aurochs, re-stocking of red and fallow deer, legal actions and campaigning about wilderness protection and assisting sustainable business development and wildlife watching are some of the activities of Rewilding Europe.
This expansion of the Rewilding Europe initiative was announced by Staffan Widstrand, Marketing and Communication Director of Rewilding Europe during his presentation The Rewilding 10 – Making it Real.
Rewilding Europe aims to rewild one million hectares of land by 2020, creating 10 magnificent wildlife and wilderness areas of international quality. Especially focusing on Europe’s huge areas of abandoned land, and on proving the business case for wild nature.