This Project is co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union.

Recovery of the European bison

European bison in the Țarcu Mountains, Southern Carpathians, Romania.
Staffan Widstrand / Rewilding Europe

Project name: Urgent actions for the recovery of European Bison populations in Romania
Acronym: LIFE RE-Bison
Reference code: LIFE14 NAT/NL/000987
Duration: 5 years. Start date 01.01.2016. End date 30.03.2021
Total budget: 1,816,991 euros
EU contribution: 1,362,735 euros

Latest news:

• Technology helps co-existence in the Southern Carpathians

  

  16. March 2018

  A four-day digital workshop held last December in the Southern Carpathians rewilding area saw participants brainstorm new ways to mitigate human-bison conflict.  Digital technology and wild nature frequently seem worlds apart. But in the Southern Carpathians rewilding area technological innovation is now generating solutions to rewilding-related problems, ensuring that humans and bison can peacefully co-exist. …

• New education programme launched in the Southern Carpathians

  

  30. November 2017

  The two-year programme will encourage more young Romanians to become involved in wild nature and forms part of a vision to use reintroduced bison as an engine for driving local development.   An ambitious education programme recently launched in an area of the Southern Carpathians in Romania aims to involve youngsters in the conservation of …

• Romanian bison photo exhibition takes reintroduction to the people

  

  30. October 2017

  The exhibition, which will continue until 2021, depicts the ongoing bison reintroduction in the Southern Carpathians by Rewilding Europe and WWF Romania, with a special focus on reaching out to the younger generation.        They say a picture tells a thousand words. This autumn a visually stunning Romanian photographic exhibition presented the full story of Rewilding …

• Bison Hillock gets new wildlife observatory

  

  1. September 2017

  Multi-day collaborative workshop in the Southern Carpathians sees construction of beautifully designed building for wildlife viewing and related events.  Visitors to the Bison Hillock in Rewilding Europe’s Southern Carpathians rewilding area can now enjoy a new, state-of-the art wildlife observatory. Constructed during a 10-day on location “workshop” in August, the striking wooden structure boasts a …

• Bison herd in the Southern Carpathians welcomes three new members

  

  18. August 2017

  This year’s birth of three bison calves bodes well for the successful reintroduction of this majestic herbivore. Rewilding Europe and its partners are delighted to announce that the bison herd in the Southern Carpathians has this year increased by three. The discovery of the bison calves, following four consecutive years of bison reintroductions, was greeted …

• On World Ranger Day, the bison rangers in the Southern Carpathians share details of their mission to help save bison from extinction

  

  1. August 2017

  Matei and Daniel (whom we like to call Danu) are WWF/Rewilding bison rangers in the Țarcu Mountains, Southern Carpathians, Romania. As rangers, they patrol the area every day with activities linked to the monitoring of bison and the state of their natural habitat, maintenance of the enclosures where bison live from the moment they get …

• New bison boost in the Southern Carpathians

  

  28. April 2017

  The spectacular sight of Europe’s largest land animal running wild  is set to become more common in Romania’s Țarcu Mountains. After a long journey from the Avesta Reserve in Sweden, a group of nine European bison arrived at Rewilding Europe’s Southern Carpathians rewilding area on April 22 and 23. The group will eventually join free-roaming …

• LIFE Bison Project presented in Bucharest, Romania

  

  1. November 2016

  Last Friday, the LIFE project “Urgent actions for the recovery of European Bison populations in Romania” (LIFE Bison) held its opening ceremony at the “Grigore Antipa” Natural History Museum in Bucharest, Romania. The project works to build a viable population of the European bison in the Tarçu Mountains Natura 2000 site in the Southern Carpathians. …

• Fresh camera trap images from Bison Hillock

  

  16. September 2016

  The reintroduction of bison in the Romanian Țarcu Mountains, which began in 2012 with a partnership between WWF-Romania and Rewilding Europe, is running at full speed, with 20 individuals already roaming freely 200 years after their disappearance from these lands. Through the LIFE Bison project funded by the EU, we aim at creating a viable …

• Holograms explaining the bison behaviour and impact on nature in Romania

  

  24. August 2016

  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 …

• Third bison release in the Southern Carpathians, Romania

  

  13. June 2016

  This Saturday, after 3000 km of travelling, ten more European bison originating from Belgian and German zoos and wildlife centres arrived at the Țarcu Mountains in the southern part of Romania. This group joined the herds Rewilding Europe and WWF Romania released here in 2014 and 2015, making one more step towards creating a viable wild bison …

• Southern Carpathians combining rewilding and technology

  

  24. March 2016

  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 …

• LIFE Bison and LIFE Vultures projects kicked-off

  

  19. February 2016

  A major gathering of nature conservation organisations took place this week in Haskovo, Bulgaria. Members from Rewilding Europe, Rewilding Rhodopes, Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds/Birdlife Bulgaria, WWF Romania, WWF Greece, Vulture Conservation Foundation and Hellenic Ornithological Society/BirdLife Greece gathered for the kick-off meetings and training sessions of two LIFE funded projects that officially …