We are excited to announce the release of Rewilding Europe’s first promotional film today, presenting our vision for a wilder Europe. Take a few moments and travel with us to some of the rewilding areas in which we work, learn about the historic opportunities for rewilding, and how this can benefit both nature and people.
We regret to announce that recently, Rewilding Europe had to decide to withdraw from the Eastern Carpathians rewilding area. The main reason is that, despite several years of trying, we have found that at the moment there is no enabling environment for a major rewilding initiative in the region.
Last week, a five day long “Natural Grazing” course took place in the Netherlands. Rewilding Europe and ARK Nature organized the course to support Rewilding Europe’s local teams and European Rewilding Network (ERN) members involved in natural grazing. Participants from six European countries attended various workshops, expert discussions sessions and study tours together gaining better knowledge and insight about the topic of natural grazing.
This June, the eleventh web-based seminar of the European Rewilding Network took place through our online platform. Members from various European countries gathered to discuss and exchange knowledge about the conversion of former agricultural lands into a more natural setting that allows natural processes to shape the landscape once again, and support species to live here.
Rewilding Europe warmly welcomes five new members to the European Rewilding Network. These new members are rewilding initiatives in Austria/Germany, Greece, Belarus, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Ukraine. Since its launch at WILD10 Salamanca in October 2013, the network doubled in size and is now counting 48 members from 23 European countries.
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.
In January this year Rewilding Lapland, the local partner of Rewilding Europe in Sweden, signed cooperation agreements with two community based river organizations to work together to rewild large parts of the stunning and largely free-roaming Råne and Pite rivers. The first activities will start in early spring this year. A unique initiative to help recover some of the last wild salmon populations of continental Europe.
Today, ARK Nature and Rewilding Europe have renewed their partnership with the signing of another three-year agreement for cooperation. This cooperation includes continuation of existing work like developing the European Wildlife Bank and the European Rewilding Network, but also possible new activities such as promoting the role of carrion and scavengers in Rewilding Europe’s rewilding areas.
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.
Dave and Anna, two environmentalists from the United Kingdom, started their “Biking for Rewilding” tour in April 2015 after leaving their office jobs and taking off on an adventure with a purpose. The 4,000 km cycling tour led them through seven European countries, where they visited seven rewilding areas. The final two destinations were Wisent Welt and the Palatinate Forest Biosphere Reserve in Germany, members of the European Rewilding Network (ERN).