Held in the Gelderse Poort area of the Netherlands – an early showcase of European rewilding involving natural grazing – the three-day meeting sees GrazeLIFE project partners come together for the first time. Coordinated by Rewilding Europe, the three-year project will hopefully lead to increased EU legislative support for more natural grazing systems.
A new academic paper outlines how principles for European rewilding can be put into practice. Based on practical experience and pilot projects, some dating back over 25 years, the authors ask applied scientists to view rewilding as an unfolding conservation approach to optimise its transformative potential.
To celebrate the recent relaunch of our website, Rewilding Europe is conducting interviews with prominent persons in conservation and rewilding across Europe. Following on from Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, we are delighted to present British naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author Chris Packham as the second interviewee of this series.
Rewilding Europe shares the concerns of the Vulture Conservation Foundation and BirdLife International that Europe’s vultures are now at extremely high risk. Rewilding Europe supports their efforts for banning veterinary diclofenac in Europe. Both organizations have sent to the EU Commission and the EU member states a formal request for them to start a Referral procedure for a withdrawal of marketing authorization of veterinary diclofenac under Article 35 of Directive 2001/82/EC, based on its risks for vulture populations in Europe.
Rewilding Europe finalised today a new two-year partnership with Swiss-based Fondation Segré. The ambition is to prepare and implement urgent measures for the conservation of the Marsican brown bear in Central Apennines.
Rewilding can be the best option for land-use in cases of farmland abandonment in Europe and all over the world when the social structure of farming communities has been eroded and low-intensity farming is no longer socially or economically viable. In some areas maintaining a moderate level of agricultural disturbance can maximize species richness with benefits for biodiversity. But both strategies cannot be successfully implemented without intervention and right management.
From 9 to 14 October, Rewilding Europe organized a Training Seminar on Wildlife Watching and Conservation Enterprise Development in Finland. Representatives of the five rewilding projects from various European countries travelled all the way up to Finland to learn from first-hand experience in the Kuhmo region, which is famous for its bear-watching facilities.
It was 25 years ago when I saw a tortoise for the last time, as a researcher of perhaps the richest area of reptiles in Europe: Thrace. Even Egyptian vulture, imperial eagle and black vulture fed on reptiles there. And it appeared that the majestic golden eagle, elsewhere picking young ibex and chamois off the rocks, was taking almost 100 tortoises a year per eagle chick back to the nest.
After the first night’s short sleep, when three bull elephants chased us away from our open air camp and two hyenas took advantage of our absence to finish our meal, we arrived in the late afternoon at campsite two quite exhausted. However, the sight in front us quickly removed all tiredness.