For Romanian photographer Dan Dinu, bringing youngsters closer to nature is all about 10 special words.

The rise of rewilding has led to much dialogue and debate. With rewilding initiatives now bearing fruit in over 25 European countries, Rewilding Europe’s new and progressive language can engender essential support and passion for wild nature across the continent.

This year the Danube Delta region experienced one of the harshest winters on record. Temperatures plummeted to -20°C, encasing landscapes in a thick coat of frozen water. Răzvan Crimschi, the Rewilding Officer of our Danube Delta team, lives in the Romanian village of Sfântu Gheorghe. Here he shares with us the experience of life in the delta’s spectacular winter landscape.

Today, Rewilding Europe launches a new platform that enables everybody to become an active part of the rewilding movement that is emerging in Europe. We offer the perfect opportunity for you to support one or more different actions that Rewilding Europe is working on. Experience how great is it to see nature bouncing back! As a token of our appreciation we will thank you with a nature-related gift or even invite you to spend a day in the field with Rewilding Europe team in one of our rewilding areas!

The term ‘rewilding’ is being recognised and acknowledged more widely and more frequently in Europe, while many initiatives and organisations have started to use this term. But what is ‘rewilding’ and how do we like to use it in the European context? It is for this reason that we have developed a working definition of ‘rewilding’ and first published this in our Annual Review 2014.

Following the successful seminar held in mid October in Finland, now comes the process of trying to develop successful conservation enterprises in our rewilding areas. At the seminar, we first challenged ourselves to consider what each of us understood by the term “conservation”. Was this a preservationist approach, where we sought to protect what is already there? Or a more dynamic approach where we seek to stimulate existing ecosystems and natural processes – and indeed create new ones?

„Look at how the bark beetle influences the spruce forests – the affected trees appear as small islands in the larger forest landscape”. Tea Silic, biologist at the Northern Velebit National Park, shows us around in the park in preparation for the start-up of one of Rewilding Europe’s field projects.

After the first night’s short sleep, when three bull elephants chased us away from our open air camp and two hyenas took advantage of our absence to finish our meal, we arrived in the late afternoon at campsite two quite exhausted. However, the sight in front us quickly removed all tiredness.

From the wide and relatively intact Dehesa forests of the Salamanca district in Castilla y León. After five minutes in the Campanarios de Azába nature reserve, we understand that we must be in the right place with the impressive sight of more than 100 large raptors slowly taking to their wings in the air thermals of the morning sun over the holm and cork oaks of the reserve.