On the banks of Portugal’s Côa River, a thriving connection between people, nature and business offers new hope for the future.

Tauros have been released into the Greater Côa Valley for the first time. The herd will play a vital role in restoring grassland and woodland habitats in this rewilding landscape in Portugal.

In Portugal’s Greater Côa Valley, Paul de Toirões is the fourth rewilding site in an expanding network. With the local rewilding team overseeing key restoration measures, it will become an increasingly important ecological stepping stone.

The symposium, which helped promote rewilding in both a European and Portuguese context, featured a range of presentations from rewilding thought leaders. It has so far attracted over 2000 online views.

The “CÔA – Corridor of Arts” Festival will take place in the summer of 2023. Celebrating the nature and culture of northern Portugal’s Greater Côa Valley, it will build engagement with local communities and help to promote rewilding.

As a keystone species, vultures are an integral part of healthy ecosystems. The discovery last year of a cinereous vulture colony in the Greater Côa Valley is therefore good news for wild nature and local rewilding efforts.

A newly established rewilding site in northern Portugal, known as Ermo das Águias (‘wilderness of the eagles’), is providing an opportunity to improve landscape connectivity and promote the regeneration of native vegetation and enhance the benefits of natural grazing.

On the constant lookout for environmental crime and damaging wildfire, Rewilding Portugal’s surveillance team travel thousands of kilometres every year to protect wolves and other wildlife south of the Douro River.

A new rewilding centre in northern Portugal’s Greater Côa Valley will build engagement with local residents and showcase ongoing rewilding efforts.

The European rewilding movement has come a long way since Rewilding Europe was founded in 2011. The second in our series of impact stories takes a look at how rewilding has strengthened the Circle of Life in Europe over the last decade.