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.
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).