This year a new project started in the Southern Carpathians called “Wilderness Innovation Lab”, co-financed by a grant from the Swiss Contribution to the enlarged EU. The aim of the project is to help tell the story of bison reintroductions in real time through multimedia installations in the Southern Carpathians Visitor Centre. The centre is located in Armeniş, Caras-Severin County in Romania where Rewilding Europe and WWF Romania are leading a bison reintroduction project, on a 59,000 hectare protected area.

In April 2015, Rewilding Europe offered two internship positions for a desk study to collect information about wildlife in rewilding areas, in particular on the larger mammals and birds. Out of many applications received, one student and a volunteer were selected: Anna Luijten and Jelle Harms from The Netherlands. The goal of the study was to obtain an overview of the key species, their numbers, distribution, trends, habitat preferences and populations estimates. In this blog you can read how it is being an intern at Rewilding Europe.

In the early autumn of 2015, Rewilding Europe carried out a major attitude and knowledge assessment about rewilding, biodiversity and Natura 2000 network in eight rewilding areas. The assessment covered seven European countries: Portugal, Croatia, Italy, Romania, Poland, Germany and Bulgaria. The results are encouraging; people living in and around these eight rewilding areas understand and support the concept of rewilding, are aware about the problems of biodiversity loss and endorse the comeback of wildlife species.

Rewilding Europe and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation officially signed a partnership agreement, to identify and conduct joint projects in line with both organisations’ fields of interest and geographical priorities. The signing ceremony took place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, in the presence of HSH the Prince of Monaco, alongside the Eighth Award Ceremony of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the world premiere screening of ‘Les Saisons’, the latest documentary movie produced by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud to rediscover the European lands that we have shared with wild animals from the last ice age until the present day.

Today, Rewilding Europe and the Artists for Nature Foundation have officially started cooperation by signing a Memorandum of Understanding. Both organizations have identified synergies and complementarities between their vision, mission and activities and have agreed to explore working together. Combining art and rewilding – at a first glance this is maybe an unexpected connection, but if one looks in more detail it is evident and inspiring.

Born and raised in a small village among the mountain ranges of central Portugal, Pedro’s interest in the natural world began at an early age. Over time, what started as a child’s natural curiosity turned into a serious academic pursuit as Pedro, after experimenting with different pathways in his early student days, eventually graduated from the University of Lisbon with a Master of Science in Biology.

On our cycle tour of rewilding areas in Europe, our second stop was Muntanya d’Alinyà, a living mountain in the Catalan Pre-Pyrenees. Muntanya d’Alinyà is one of the largest private nature reserves in Spain and member of the European Rewilding Network (ERN).

Today, Rewilding Europe launches a new publication focusing on sharing practices on natural grazing as a key ecological process. The publication “Natural Grazing – Practices in the rewilding of cattle and horses” will help rewilding initiatives from all over Europe to learn and adopt some of the latest lessons and practices on setting up and developing natural grazing initiatives.

Ten days ago, one of the females from the founder herd of the European bison roaming the Tarcu Mountains for over a year now, gave birth to a healthy calf. The now 7-year-old female bison arrived in the Southern Carpathians rewilding area in Romania in May 2014 as part of the reintroduction and rewilding initiative led by Rewilding Europe and WWF-Romania.

When I heard that Rhodope Mountains have become the seventh Rewilding Europe’s area, the very first thought that crossed my mind was “Rhodopes cannot go any wilder”. I have always considered Rhodope Mountains as wildlife heaven due to the relatively small, even negligible human disturbance. Few months later as a Rewilding Europe volunteer, I set out on a journey to find out what can make the Rhodopes wilder than the wild place I last visited before.