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).
This November, the eighth web-based seminar of the European Rewilding Network took place. Members of the network shared valuable experiences on how to increase the tourism value of wild nature and wildlife. The seminar addressed the benefits that can arise from nature-based tourism for nature, wildlife as well as for local communities. One of the highlights was to learn how local people benefit from wildlife photography in the Iberian Peninsula.
Today, Rewilding Europe warmly welcomes three sites in The Netherlands as new members of the European Rewilding Network (ERN). Natuurmonumenten, the largest nature organisation in the Netherlands, has proposed these three sites where great progress is made with rewilding. The areas are the Deelerwoud/Veluwezoom (province of Gelderland), the Drents-Friese Wold (province of Friesland and Drenthe) and the Dutch part of the Kempen~Broek (province of Limburg and Noord-Brabant), in the border area with Belgium.
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.
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. In this fourth blog you can read about their visit to the European bison project in the Kraansvlak area along the Dutch coast. This project is one of the first members of the European Rewilding Network (ERN). It was here, where Dave and Anna met the spectacular European bison in nature for the first time in their life.
On September 17th, the seventh web-based seminar of the European Rewilding Network took place and this time members from several rewilding sites in Europe discussed how to restore food chains and the ways rewilding contributes to this. The webinar specifically addressed the crucial importance of dead animals in nature and consequently the chances for scavengers feeding upon them, all to restore natural food chains in our European ecosystems: the Circle of Life.
On our cycle tour of rewilding areas in Europe, our third stop was Parc Naziunal Svizzer – the Swiss National Park. Established in 1914, it was the first national park in the Alps and by now one of the oldest national parks in Europe. It is one of the first members of the European Rewilding Network (ERN).
Between March and July this year, in total 18 European bison calves have been born in European Rewilding Network member areas. These (semi-)wild new-borns add up to the total number of 5555 individuals registered in the European Bison Pedigree Book (December 2014). The European bison is still listed as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, although in many places in our continent great work is ongoing to create a better future for the species. All these initiatives help the European bison to roam more of Europe’s natural and semi-natural landscapes.