Today we are delighted to announce that the European Investment Bank has provided Rewilding Europe Capital with a 6 million euro loan finance contract. This represents the first project of the “Bank on Nature Initiative”, set up by the European Commission. The signing ceremony took place in the Berlaymont Building, headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels.
On 23 March 2017, a coalition of five organisations kicked off a new initiative to promote and strengthen the EU ecological restoration agenda. By signing a Memorandum of Understanding, Rewilding Europe, BirdLife Europe and Central Asia, WWF European Policy Office, the European Environmental Bureau and the German Institute for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), launched this 3-year initiative, funded by WWF Netherlands.
Last week more than 30 participants took part in a second nature and vulture-related tourism development training session in the Eastern Rhodopes, organised by Rewilding Rhodopes and the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds.
Georg Messerer of Rewilding Europe’s Southern Carpathians team is based in the small Romanian town of Armenis. He believes wilder experiences can give everyone an appreciation of life.
This November, Rewilding Europe participated at the conference ‘Innovative Financing Mechanisms for Biodiversity’ that took place in Beijing, China. The conference, organized by the European Commission and France-based environmental specialists Biotope, gathered Chinese and international conservationists and various experts from the field of nature-based economics.
Swedish Lapland’s rich natural resources can form the basis for a vibrant and sustainable local economy.
Faced with economic and environmental pressures, the Sami people of Swedish Lapland are abandoning their traditional way of life. By developing partnerships that unite nature, culture and business, Rewilding Lapland is now working to offer them a more sustainable future.
Last Friday, the Life project “Conservation of Black and Griffon vultures in the cross-border Rhodope Mountains” held its opening ceremony during the International Vulture Awareness Day celebration in Bulgaria. The project focuses on the recovery and further expansion of black and griffon vulture populations in this part of the Balkan region, simultaneously developing nature based tourism thus providing long-term benefits for the local communities.
The Bison Visitor Centre in Armeniș, Țarcu Mountains, Romania, is now presenting scientific data about the bison in a playful and immersive way. It has the biggest holographic projection in Europe with two more installations that were built at the crossroads between art and technology. The data feed, animating the installations, is being continuously collected from the field by trainees from Romania and abroad who study different relevant subjects related to natural sciences. They live and work in the nearby village of Feneș, at the Research Station which was inaugurated this August.
On May 26, Swedish Marie-Claire Cronstedts Foundation announced its support for rewilding of Lapland’s rivers by presenting a grant to Rewilding Lapland Foundation. The funding will complement already approved funding by the Swedish Postcode Foundation for the restoration of fish spawning areas at Trollforsen, Pite River, and boost field activities in Lapland.
