The lucky winners of the Christmas draw in our rapidly growing Travel Club were drawn on December 20, 2013 by Frans Schepers, Managing Director of Rewilding Europe, Ilko Bosman, Finance and Operations Director and Iva Tontcheva, Communications Manager.
After our successful crowdfunding campaign, Associação Transumância e Natureza (ATN) has now bought 6 Tuareg-style tents and produced a complete all-included program (meals, tents, sleeping bags and mattresses) to use mainly for school groups who want to visit the area. The ATN team will be in charge of all the logistics for these educational trips to Faia Brava Reserve.
Associação Transumância e Natureza (ATN) in partnership with Rewilding Europe is excited to launch an opportunity to develop and operate a boutique lodge/camp in the Faia Brava private nature reserve in the heart of Portugal’s Côa River Valley. The picturesque site is fully secured and available on a minimum 15 year leasehold basis.
23 Retuertas horses, coming from the Doñana biological station in southern Spain, were released in the Campanarios de Azaba biological reserve on October 7. The release was possible thanks to Fundación Naturaleza y Hombre in Spain, land owner of the reserve, with support from Rewilding Europe.
The period from July to October is a risky one in Western Iberia every year. You cannot imagine how high the temperatures can get and how scarce the rains most often are. This means a great risk of fire. Even if fire is a natural phenomenon here and has always been, the frequency has increased to very high and dangerous levels that are not natural. Not because of the climate, but rather because of humans and their habits.
Large-scale land use agreements in Portugal have proved to be very difficult to achieve, as the average size of rural properties is well under two hectares. Often, land is distributed among several owners, making the task of contacting them very difficult and time-consuming. In addition, some studies state that there are two million hectares of land in Portugal where landowners are not identified.
A 12-page story was published in the September issue of the National Geographic Magazine, Dutch/Belgian edition. NGM Staff writer Pancras Dijk visited the rewilding areas Campanarios de Azaba and Faia Brava in Western Iberia, both parts of the Rewilding Europe initiative. The opening spread can be seen here.
From the very fragmented, small-landowner landscape in northeastern Portugal, we suddenly come into a big, already quite raw and wild-looking area: the 600 hectare Faia Brava private nature reserve, in the dramatic Côa valley. This is Portugal’s first private reserve and it is owned by Associaçâo Transumância e Natureza, who is working to rewild it, taking away all extractive use and bringing back lost wildlife, as well as protecting the already existing precious locally breeding wildlife: the Bonelli’s eagle, the golden eagle, griffon vulture, Egyptian vulture, eagle owl etc. And taking care of the cultural heritage sites in the reserve as well.