This July, after an in depth review, Rewilding Europe received the official charity recognition from the Dutch Bureau of Fundraising Organisations (CBF). Rewilding Europe now carries the CBF’s Seal of Approval for meeting the formulated criteria with regard to the disbursement of funds, governing board, policies, fundraising and accountability.
Last week, a five day long “Natural Grazing” course took place in the Netherlands. Rewilding Europe and ARK Nature organized the course to support Rewilding Europe’s local teams and European Rewilding Network (ERN) members involved in natural grazing. Participants from six European countries attended various workshops, expert discussions sessions and study tours together gaining better knowledge and insight about the topic of natural grazing.
Rewilding Europe places high value on education programmes and activities for kids, students, volunteers, activists and other nature enthusiasts. We believe that an essential part of our work is to communicate and share our passion, knowledge and enthusiasm for the natural world, and the philosophy of rewilding with the generations to come. In May, the ‘Black Vultures Nature Camp’ for children and Earth Day celebration in the Bulgarian Rhodope Mountains successfully empowered a new generation of young Europeans to share this vision further.
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.
At Rewilding Europe, we love to share our accomplishments with you. In the latest Annual Review for the year 2015, you will read about the encouraging progress we made to make Europe a wilder place. A year in which a lot of action happened in moving forward with our exciting initiative.
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.
This Monday, Rewilding Europe and WWF Romania agreed to join forces in the Danube Delta. The organisations signed a new agreement based on a joint vision for the delta, and agreed on key areas of cooperation. The common goal is to help develop the Danube Delta as one of the finest, best-protected and most famous nature destinations of the whole continent. To achieve this, wetland restoration, boosting local nature based economics, support enabling policy developments and conservation legislation, and combining communication efforts are the main elements of the cooperation.
Rewilding Europe warmly welcomes five new members to the European Rewilding Network. These new members are rewilding initiatives in Austria/Germany, Greece, Belarus, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Ukraine. Since its launch at WILD10 Salamanca in October 2013, the network doubled in size and is now counting 48 members from 23 European countries.
We are excited to announce that on 15 April, Rewilding Europe was accepted to become a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources – IUCN. Rewilding Europe was one of the 22 new members approved by the IUCN Council meeting last week.
This March the first griffon vulture chick hatched in the Studen Kladenets Natura 2000 site, located in the core of the Rhodope Mountains rewilding area. With spring in full rise, more chicks will hatch in the coming weeks continuing the positive trend in the griffon vulture population in Bulgaria.
