This year the EU will take decisions that have far-reaching consequences for Europe’s people and nature. A new set of policy papers, released today, outlines why and how European politicians should prioritise nature restoration in the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030.

The rewilding of European ecosystems can help to tackle both the current climate and biodiversity emergencies. In a policy brief published today, a coalition of five organisations call on the European Commission to prioritise nature recovery in the EU Biodiversity Strategy post-2020.

The restoration of the River Waal in Nijmegen in the Netherlands is a showcase for contemporary rewilding. In June Rewilding Europe and the Municipality of Nijmegen led an excursion presenting the restoration to representatives of various European green cities.

The rewilding movement is gaining momentum. But for the rewilding process to maximise its beneficial impact, it needs European conservation policies under which it can really thrive.

This summer, Rewilding Europe and Rewilding Britain signed a ‘Collaborative Rewilding Agreement’, marking the start of a shared intent to coordinate their rewilding and communication activities and to enhance the understanding, support and implementation of rewilding in Britain and Europe.

This Wednesday, President Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU Commission have confirmed that the EU’s flagship nature laws – the Birds and Habitats Directives – will be saved and not rewritten and weakened, ending two years of uncertainty over the laws’ future. They have also called for a plan to better implement and enforce these laws. This is a win for the record half a million people who called on the Commission to save and enforce these laws as part of the Europe-wide NatureAlert campaign.

To regain ground and confidence nature conservation needs policies that support rewilding. Rewilding is the biggest, most exciting idea to emerge in conservation since the 1970s. The challenge now is to create the spaces within conservation policy and politics where rewilding ideas can find expression, gain traction and be tested.

Today, Rewilding Europe published a ‘Policy Brief’ written and researched by Frans Schepers of Rewilding Europe and Paul Jepson of the University of Oxford, calling for an enabling policy space for rewilding as a new and complementary conservation approach in Europe. Rewilding has caught the scientific and public imagination but needs a more supportive policy environment to achieve its conservation impact. Rewilding is a logical next step in an on-going process of EU nature policy development and the ‘Policy Brief’ identifies areas where rewilding principles can extend and reinvigorate European nature policy.