Showcasing rewilding efforts in the Oder Delta, the new website will connect people with the area’s recovering wild nature and the benefits it provides.
Essential portal
Straddling the German-Polish border on a key ecological crossroads, the Oder Delta is one of central Europe’s wildest regions. Ongoing rewilding actions have seen wildlife begin to thrive in more natural densities here, with unmanaged natural processes reshaping the landscape. With nature-based tourism on the rise, growing numbers of people are visiting the delta to reconnect with nature and enjoy a chance to spot the area’s so-called “Big Seven” – the Atlantic sturgeon, grey seal, beaver, white-tailed eagle, elk, wolf, and European bison.
Today’s launch of a new Rewilding Oder Delta website will bring German and Polish online audiences even closer to their own national rewilding area – the website will initially be bilingual (German and Polish), with English added later. Showcasing the work of the Rewilding Oder Delta team, as well as news and stunning photography related to some of the delta’s most charismatic wildlife species and landscapes, the website will educate and inspire those looking to learn more about nature recovery. It will also inform people aiming to travel to the delta to explore its fantastic wild nature, and offers background information about rewilding, its wide-ranging benefits, and the need to scale it up.
Transboundary impact
Peter Torkler, the Rewilding Oder Delta team leader, is excited by the anticipated cross-border impact of the new website.
“One of the main aims of this captivating new platform is to raise the profile of rewilding in both Germany and Poland,” says Torkler. “In Poland, especially, where rewilding is not very well known but has huge potential, we want to reach out to people of all ages and backgrounds and really engage and motivate them. And when we meet with stakeholders, the website will also act as our business card.”
Development of the Rewilding Oder Delta website was funded by the European Union’s Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Interreg V A for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern/Brandenburg/Poland. Several of Rewilding Europe’s eight rewilding areas have now launched their own website, with the launch of sites for the Central Apennines and Rhodope Mountains imminent.