The overall aim of “Strategy 2030”, Rewilding Europe’s pioneering and ambitious plan for the next decade, is to advance and scale up rewilding. Working towards its objectives with partners from across the continent will help to deliver a Europe that is richer in wild nature, with all the benefits this brings for people and planet.
Taking rewilding to the next level
In 2011, Rewilding Europe was founded with the mission of making Europe a wilder place, for the benefit of both nature and people. Today, as we celebrate our tenth anniversary, our initiative oversees a collection of pioneering rewilding landscapes, distributed right across Europe. These are showcasing rewilding as an effective, practical and immediate way of realising nature recovery at scale – a recovery which is not only good for nature itself, but which will also help to address some of society’s most pressing challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and a wide range of socio-economic issues.
The last 10 years have seen a solid base for European rewilding established. Going forwards, we now need to kick on and really scale up rewilding. With this in mind, Rewilding Europe has just released an ambitious new strategic plan for the period 2021-2030, titled “Advancing Rewilding in Europe” (“Strategy 2030” in short).
Strategy 2030 has been developed in close cooperation with our nine rewilding landscape leaders and sets tangible targets and milestones for 2030. Working towards its objectives will help to deliver a Europe that is richer in wild nature, with all the benefits this brings for people and planet.
Demonstrating and catalysing
Strategy 2030 is focused on maximising the impact of Rewilding Europe’s twin demonstration and catalysing roles, as we work to deliver wilder nature at landscape scale across Europe. The multiple benefits that this will bring lie at the heart of nature-based solutions to the environmental and societal challenges confronting the region, including the climate and biodiversity emergencies.
The objectives of Strategy 2030 can be broken down into four main components. Those contained under “Wilder Nature” and “Nature for People” represent the core of the work Rewilding Europe will carry out within its rewilding landscapes over the next 10 years. Those contained under “Building Engagement” and “Scaling Up” are intended to build support for rewilding and contribute to Rewilding Europe’s overall ambition to advance rewilding across Europe.
New targets and milestones
Over the next 10 years, Rewilding Europe will expand the number of rewilding landscapes in which it showcase practical rewilding from 10 to 15. Within these landscapes we will actively practice and demonstrate rewilding ourselves, and with local partners, on a total of 500,000 hectares. The five new landscapes will include marine and coastal ecosystems for the first time, with the 15 landscapes extending across a combined area of at least 8 million hectares. To ensure meaningful results and impact, we have committed to work in these landscapes for a minimum period of 20 years.
At the same time, we will intensify and strengthen our focus on measuring progress and assessing impact. To achieve this, Rewilding Europe will further develop its monitoring tools to ensure that progress towards the targets set out in Strategy 2030 is continually tracked at both European level and in our landscapes. Integral to this will be the use of an innovative, science-based rewilding score system, which will demonstrate the ecological impact of practical rewilding.
Join us!
With Rewilding Europe playing a key role, the last 10 years have seen rewilding capture hearts and minds on an ever-increasing scale. Today, support for nature recovery in Europe has never been greater. Over the next decade, our generation now has a unique opportunity to upgrade European nature and ensure rewilding delivers game-changing impact.
By 2030, Rewilding Europe wants to see rewilding practised extensively, at scale, right across Europe, as a wide range of actors from the private and public sector come together to co-create a wilder continent. Strategy 2030 is our way of helping that vision becomes a reality. As we begin 2022 working towards its objectives, join us in creating a better, wilder Europe together.