Five years on from the foundation of Rewilding Europe, the year 2016 marked an important milestone for our young but rapidly developing initiative. Unveiled at the Wild Ways event on April 19, 2017, the Annual Review for 2016 looks back at Rewilding Europe’s major achievements over the period 2011–2016, as well as outlining our ambitions for the future.
Georg Messerer of Rewilding Europe’s Southern Carpathians team is based in the small Romanian town of Armenis. He believes wilder experiences can give everyone an appreciation of life.
This year’s first web-based seminar of the European Rewilding Network took place end of March. Members from 14 European rewilding sites joined in and discussed how to engage students in rewilding related work. The participants addressed the great potential of involving this young generation and shared experiences about how to best start internship programmes.
Today, Rewilding Europe launches a new platform that enables everybody to become an active part of the rewilding movement that is emerging in Europe. We offer the perfect opportunity for you to support one or more different actions that Rewilding Europe is working on. Experience how great is it to see nature bouncing back! As a token of our appreciation we will thank you with a nature-related gift or even invite you to spend a day in the field with Rewilding Europe team in one of our rewilding areas!
Rewilding Europe started its initiative in 2011 with a substantial grant from the Dutch Postcode Lottery for the project “Green Treasures of Europe”. This special project grant was received from the Dutch Postcode Lottery through ARK Nature, one of the initiating partners of Rewilding Europe. After four years of working in partnership with ARK Nature (2011–2014), the project was recently officially approved and closed by the Dutch Postcode Lottery.
Today, Wouter Helmer, co-founder and Rewilding Director of Rewilding Europe, received a prestigious Dutch conservation award, the ‘Groeneveld Award’ (Groeneveldprijs) at the Groeneveld Castle in Baarn, the Netherlands. The award council report describes Wouter Helmer as ‘an instigator of modern ecology, a brilliant and connecting thinker and a great communicator.
Rewilding Europe is delighted to receive financial support from the Toyota Fund for Europe for working in the Southern Carpathians and Velebit rewilding areas.
This May, a small team from the Croatian adventure travel company Adria Velebitica, a guest couple and Dutch bushcraft specialists from Extra Survival, joined Rewilding Europe for a Rewilding Tented Camp training programme in Velebit, Croatia.
In its third Annual Review, Rewilding Europe reports back on its achievements in 2014. Building a sound base during the first three years of the initiative to create lasting results in the longer term, started to pay off in various ways. Significant milestones and tangible results were achieved within the three main pillars of Rewilding Europe: rewilding, enterprise and communication.
Rewilding Europe is excited to announce that six enthusiasts have recently joined our rewilding team on a voluntary basis. After our announcement in February when we offered for two volunteer positions we were happily surprised by the response we received.
