Rewilding Europe completed its first ever translocation of water buffalo last week, with a herd of seven animals successfully released on Ermakov Island in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta. The hefty herbivores will create and maintain a mosaic landscape on the island – thereby supporting the area’s dynamic, wild nature – as well as driving development of local nature-based tourism.

Representing the first ever translocation of Konik horses into the Danube Delta, the shipment of 23 animals travelled by road from Latvia to the Ukrainian village of Orlovka. By helping to create and maintain mosaic landscapes, their grazing will help to boost biodiversity in the Danube Delta rewilding area.

An inaugural grant from the newly established Endangered Landscapes Programme will enable Rewilding Europe and local partners to scale up rewilding efforts across an expansive area of wetland and steppe in the transboundary Danube Delta area. This will bring huge benefits to wild nature and a wide range of local stakeholders.

Taking place at the end of February, this year’s first European Rewilding Network (ERN) webinar saw 17 participants from nine European countries come together online to discuss the challenges of introducing large herbivores.

The successful translocation saw a second group of ten Tauros join the existing herd, which arrived in the Danube Delta in 2015. Crossbreeding with local breeds should result in a free roaming, well-adapted herd of bovines that will shape a biodiverse, naturally grazed delta landscape.

Golden jackal numbers are now increasing in the Danube Delta. Rewilding Europe has undertaken a preliminary local study to examine jackal behaviour and gauge people’s attitudes towards this resilient carnivore.

Rewilding Europe is delighted to announce that rewilding activities in the spectacular Danube Delta, Europe’s second largest wetland, will now extend into Ukraine. This follows the signing of a partnership agreement with Rewilding Ukraine, a newly established local NGO.

This year the Danube Delta region experienced one of the harshest winters on record. Temperatures plummeted to -20°C, encasing landscapes in a thick coat of frozen water. Răzvan Crimschi, the Rewilding Officer of our Danube Delta team, lives in the Romanian village of Sfântu Gheorghe. Here he shares with us the experience of life in the delta’s spectacular winter landscape.

Effective communication with local stakeholders is a crucial part of any rewilding project. In December 2016 various members of the European Rewilding Network came together in a webinar to discuss their experiences with stakeholders and establish best practice.

This Monday, Rewilding Europe and WWF Romania agreed to join forces in the Danube Delta. The organisations signed a new agreement based on a joint vision for the delta, and agreed on key areas of cooperation. The common goal is to help develop the Danube Delta as one of the finest, best-protected and most famous nature destinations of the whole continent. To achieve this, wetland restoration, boosting local nature based economics, support enabling policy developments and conservation legislation, and combining communication efforts are the main elements of the cooperation.