Hungary is a country just beginning its rewilding journey, and so we are delighted to welcome the Pentezug initiative, which aims to rewild open grasslands using semi-wild grazers with minimal human intervention.
Restoring the world’s wildlife populations through rewilding would deliver a huge range of benefits to people and nature. While there are many challenges to the scaling up of such rewilding, a newly published paper outlines measures that might help to overcome them.
The dunes, moors and marshes of the French southwest coast were once widely grazed by feral bovines. The newest member of the European Rewilding Network is restoring the influence of large herbivores here, enhancing biodiversity and helping to maintain the site’s characteristic patchwork of habitats.
The Taurus Foundation, dedicated to creating a substitute for the extinct aurochs that is best able to thrive in contemporary natural grazing schemes and wild landscapes, has become the latest organisation to join the European Rewilding Network. Julia Mata, the European Rewilding Network Coordinator, celebrated the news, saying, “This certification is long overdue. The Taurus foundation has been doing amazing work on the Tauros Programme, and we are very happy to welcome them into the European Rewilding Network.”
In the Iberian Highlands rewilding landscape in Spain, the local rewilding team are working to reintroduce wild and semi-wild herbivores. By enhancing natural grazing, this is increasing biodiversity, reducing wildfire risk, and helping to regenerate natural forest.
Today, global warming is increasingly affecting people and nature across the world. Rewilding is a great way of enhancing the climate change resilience of landscapes and communities.
A new grant from the Cartier for Nature foundation will support rewilding in both the Southern Carpathians and Iberian Highlands, with a primary focus on the reintroduction of free-roaming herbivores.
Spanish readers can now learn all about the aurochs and the programme to bring back this European icon. The newest translation of the book – “The Aurochs – Born to be Wild” – provides context for rewilding efforts in Spain, which are set to boost natural grazing with wild and semi-wild herbivores such as the Tauros.
The Tour du Valat Estate in the Camargue region in southern France is demonstrating how wetlands can be rewilded for the benefit of nature and people. Membership of the European Rewilding Network will enhance the estate’s rewilding efforts.
Bulgaria’s Rewilding Rhodopes team were overjoyed to record the births of four bison calves in May and June this year – the highest number of calves to have been born in a single season since bison were reintroduced to Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains in 2019.