How does rewilding speak to you? Why does it matter to you or your community? How can rewilding transform both landscapes and mindsets?
These were the questions we asked ourselves as we started our collaborative “Rewilding through Art” initiative between the WILDCARD and the REWRITE projects. These were also the questions we put forward, to invite anyone with a story, image, or idea about rewilding to share their vision with us. Our goal? An immersive exhibition in the forest with the vision to bridge art, science, and culture. And a virtual gallery with Meander, a new magazine for bioregional culture, slow living, and regenerative futures, who became a collaborating partner along the way.
What if rewilding Europe were a strategic board game – where every forest hides a secret, and every move helps decide the fate of our ecosystems?
Welcome to WILDCARD. The Forest Game, an exciting new podcast that turns the complex science of ecological restoration into an immersive, continent-spanning adventure. Produced by our WILDCARD project in collaboration with Starter, this innovative audio series invites listeners to journey through Europe’s diverse and often overlooked forest landscapes, exploring how damaged ecosystems can be restored and reimagined.
Imagine walking through a primeval forest – towering trees with gnarled branches, thick undergrowth, and chaotic piles of fallen branches and logs. It would also be bursting with life, from the mats of moss and lichens covering logs, to the birdsong echoing across the canopy, or the insects of all sizes buzzing around on a hot day.
Primeval forests like this are a rare sight in today’s Europe. But this is changing as ever more forests are set aside from active management, allowing nature to take the reins. We would expect to see an increase in biodiversity within these “rewilded” forests, but is that really true? This is one of the key questions the WILDCARD project is asking, and answering it will be the main goal of my research for the next couple of years. What I can already tell you is that the answer will not be as straightforward as it may seem.
As I stepped into the conference hall in Brussels, I was looking forward to hearing the talks from some of the leading experts when it comes to restoration in Europe. Around 150 researchers, policymakers, and (some) practitioners had gathered from across Europe for the policy event, When Nature Can Do the Job: Fostering Co-Benefits for People and the Environment in View of the Nature Restoration Legislation. Hosted by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency CINEA, the Horizon Europe Projects WILDCARD, WILD-E and REWRITE, as well as the Society for Ecological Restoration Europe, this event was more than an academic discussion—it was a forum where science met policy, and where the future of Europe’s landscapes was discussed.
Learn how to collect soil data with the new WILDCARD video guide!
While many studies have explored how the presence of vegetation and animals change during rewilding, the hidden world of soil has received far less attention. Yet, soils represent the largest terrestrial carbon pool, and accommodate more than half of the Earth’s biodiversity. There’s still a lot we don’t know about how carbon stocks and soil biodiversity respond when nature is left to recover on its own. This is partly because soil is incredibly complex, expensive to study, and varies greatly from place to place.
The WILDCARD project is working to close this gap. By collecting data on soil carbon and biotic communities, the latter using advanced environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques, we aim to better understand how soils respond to rewilding. This will help us learn more about the role of soil in storing carbon and supporting biodiversity. To support the projectconsortium and other organisations involved in the project, our partner Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) created a series of videos that explain the steps for collecting soil samples.
On a bright May morning, I boarded the train to Schiphol Airport with my Wageningen University colleagues, researcher Silke Jacobs and European Forest Resources professor…
By Davide Pettenella and Mauro Masiero (University of Padova, Italy)
In recent times, the tip of a large iceberg called rewilding has been spotted in the vast ocean of nature management and ecological restoration. Profound global and local changes have shaken this iceberg from its glacial platform, sparking ample interest in rewilding approaches. Although most attention is directed to the iceberg’s visible tip, rewilding conceals deeper complexities below the surface. Unveiling hidden depths would help a better understanding of rewilding as an emerging, wicked topic.
What are different pathways to rewilding and how do these approaches build on various ideas of human-nature relationships? We will embark on a journey to navigate these depths onboard a “socioeconomic and policy” submarine. Join our crew to gain a perspective different from – or, at least, complementary to – more ordinary periscopes.
All over Europe, nature is making a comeback. As more people move to cities and other land use changes occur, the EU’s forest area is growing, having increased by almost 10% (+14 million hectares) between 1990 and 2020. On top of that, a total of 10-29 million hectares of agricultural land are likely to be abandoned between 2000 and 2030. This leaves potential for native flora, fauna and complex ecosystems to reclaim space, bringing natural ‘rewilding’ to the center of Europe’s environmental policy discussions.
Understanding how rewilding can contribute to solving the climate and biodiversity crises is crucial for the successful implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the EU Nature Restoration Law, and the EU Green Deal – a mission to be tackled by the new Horizon Europe project WILDCARD. Starting in January 2024, the project is, for the first time, systematically assessing the impacts of two major rewilding approaches on carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation at the European scale. Currently, a lack of comprehensive research on the topic prevents rewilding from being fully integrated into Europe’s strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
How does the Danish Nature Agency address the trend of rewilding? What are the plans to transition managed forests into forest biodiversity reserves in Denmark – and what are the expected benefits and challenges? We discussed these and other questions with Mogens Krog, Deputy forest officer at the Danish Nature Agency.
Mogens Krog
Mogens, rewilding is a trend in Denmark now – who are the ones who argue for large connected wild nature areas and no further management? And what is the approach of the Danish Nature Agency?
In Denmark there is a growing interest among nature conservationists and nature conservation NGO’s for large connected wild nature with large herbivores (plant eater). A large area in a Danish context is considered to be 500 ha. Some argue for re-introduction of species which have been part of nature in Denmark in pre-historic time, e.g. wild horses, European bison, moose, and even elephants. Others find domestic animals such as cattle and horses, sufficient to create natural disturbances in nature areas for the benefit of biodiversity.
Denmark is a much regulated landscape with agriculture covering more than 60 % of the land area. Therefore, it may be relative expensive to include private land in rewilding projects Also, in order to avoid major conflicts with agricultural interests, rewilding is likely to be limited to large fences. State owned land is the focus of rewilding interests. In Denmark, state owned land is primarily managed by the Danish Nature Agency under the Ministry of the Environment and Food and covers app. 5% of the total land area in Denmark (210.000 ha).
