The ninth web-based seminar of the European Rewilding Network took place on December 14th. This time, attendants active in various rewilding sites throughout Europe shared experiences in restoring natural grazing as a key ecological process by bringing back free roaming and wild-living large herbivores. The event focused in particular on horses and bovines, including the Tauros.
Today, Rewilding Europe launches a new publication focusing on sharing practices on natural grazing as a key ecological process. The publication “Natural Grazing – Practices in the rewilding of cattle and horses” will help rewilding initiatives from all over Europe to learn and adopt some of the latest lessons and practices on setting up and developing natural grazing initiatives.
On Tuesday 19th May, the release of a herd counting 23 Bosnian mountain horses marked the start of an exciting natural grazing pilot in 500 hectares of the spectacular Lika Plains in the Velebit rewilding area. Guests from Adessium Foundation, Rogier van der Weerd and Floris van Hest together with Frans Schepers, Managing Director of Rewilding Europe, jointly cut the Croatian coloured ribbon, symbolising the opening of the site and releasing the animals.
During the fifth event of the European Rewilding Network, that took place March 27, attendants from several rewilding sites exchanged experiences on natural grazing. In specific, aspects were discussed on how to start and manage herds of cattle and horses in a more natural context meaning the animals are managed with less human intervention, in natural densities, and towards becoming self-sufficient.
Natural grazing is all about the return of wild and semi-wild grazers to their natural habitats. But what does this mean? And how does it serve us and nature?
From 26 to 30 March, Rewilding Europe organized a training seminar in The Netherlands for all the five project teams from the different European countries. The main subject was on natural grazing and communication, as these are two very important and challenging subjects in all our rewilding projects. This was the second training seminar that we organized, after the successful one on conservation enterprise development in Finland in October 2011.
The next iteration of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is about to be ratified. While those involved have declared it to be “greener and fairer”, there is serious concern that it will be even more destructive for climate and biodiversity. A new report from the GrazeLIFE consortium outlines how and why European policies must provide far more support for low-intensity grazing.
More than 70 fallow deer will be released in the Rhodope Mountains rewilding area in Bulgaria over the 2020/2021 winter period. As part of the long-term restoration of deer populations in the Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria and Greece, the animals will revitalise food chains, create more functional ecosystems and boost nature-based tourism.
Reintroducing free-roaming herbivores to fire-prone landscapes can reduce wildfire risk and enhance biodiversity.
iDiv-based PhD student Julia Rouet-Leduc has just completed a review of the benefits of different types of grazing. As part of the ongoing GrazeLIFE project, her work will inform the discussion about how to create a more supportive policy environment for these various grazing systems in Europe. In this blog, she walks us through some of the findings from her literature review.