Rewilder Weekly #14
Welcome to the latest edition of the Rewilder Weekly! Before we get into this week's eight stories, a quick note about communication: Rewilding is collaborative work and every movement spreads by the power of the stories it tells. Mongabay currently offers fellowships for aspiring journalists in Asia, and in addition they're looking for two people for their global newsroom. Share these opportunities (and apply if you think you have what it takes!). Now then, let's rewild!
👉 As a reminder: If you come across stories you'd like to see featured in an upcoming edition, send them to me and I'll gladly do what I can.
1) Massive scope for Europe's river restoration projects
Now that the EU's Nature Restoration Law has been adopted, there are goals and timelines and deliverables. The WWF's Rivers2Restore project has eleven projects set up. If implemented, they would represent 2'200 kilometers' worth of restored rivers across Europe. To put that into perspective - imagine a restored river from Copenhagen in the north all the way across Europe to Barcelona in the south.
Claire Baffert (Senior Policy Officer, Water and Climate Adaptation, at WWF European Policy Office) says, "𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦, 𝘩𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴. 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘢 𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴, 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘪𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨."
👉 Go here for post, articles and reports
2) EU Court of Justice rules against wolf culling
You may remember that, in recent months, the idea of killing wolves across Europe really took off when none other than EU President Ursula von der Leyen seemed to have put her foot on the scale after a wolf killed her pony (sounds like a bad movie plot, but it happened). What followed was that von der Leyen agreed on a proposal to downgrade the wolf's protection status.
Kriton Arsenis, Co-founder of U4Earth reports that "the EU Court of Justice has delivered a landmark ruling, affirming that economic reasons alone can't justify downgrading wolf protections ... The court emphasized that any derogations must be based on clear, precise objectives and supported by scientific evidence. Conservation comes first, ensuring that the long-term survival and favorable conservation status of this iconic species are prioritized."
👉 Go here for post and articles
3) A global shift to a plant-based diet is a huge rewilding ally
The world doesn't have to go meat-free - and farms show that better way forward. But overall the future must become plant-based. Does a plant-based future mean that there's no meat anymore? Of course not - but the tips of the scale will have inverted to far more plant-based food, far less meat and dairy consumption. As those consume far too much landmass, cause far too much deforestation, use far too much water, and emit far too much greenhouse gases.
I've read that, in the last 25 years alone, a land-mass the size of India has been deforested for livestock use ... just about everything the traditional meat and dairy industries do, is furthering the twin crisis of biodiversity loss and global warming. We must become more plant-based for those to reasons - to combat the climate and biodiversity-loss crises. And maybe for some it will also be because we see it as did Henry David Thoreau: “I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals.”
4) Rewilding is a systematic solution to a systematic crisis
Karl Wagner is Managing Director of the Global Rewilding Alliance. In his article, he delivers a clear-cut primer about where we are in the world, where the idea of 'infinite growth' on a finite planet has led us - and how systemic rewilding can get us out of this mess.
Here's a bit from the article: "Rewilding aims to regain natural richness and with it ecosystem resilience, stability, diversity, beauty. Rewilding is about preserving and strengthening the ecosystem services that humanity’s wellbeing and prosperity depend on. Rewilding is a message of hope, but that does not mean that we should ignore the elephant that is still in the room: The current theory and practice of economy with essentially exponential material growth as the key driver is still the main cause of resource overexploitation, overconsumption and destruction of nature and all that it can give us. We have to remain aware of the fact that, in the end, we need to change the root causes of biodiversity decline, climate change – and inequality."
👉 Go here for post and article
5) Meet 'Wild' - the anti-poison dog
Rewilding Apennines has shared the news of a new team member - the puppy named 'Wild' who'll be trained to be their first anti-poison dog. It's a damn shame that something like an 'anti-poison' dog should be necessary in the first place. But Italy's not the only place where truly disturbed people leave poisoned meat to kill innocent animals. Mind you, this practice goes back to ancient times when the method was used to stop predators from killing livestock. Unfortunately, some are still stuck in those ancient times!
Read the extremely insightful article to learn about animal poisonings in Italy. You'll find a map - the 'National Portal of Malicious Poisonings' that is chock-full of blue marks across all of Italy - every mark the spot of a malicious poisoning. Ever so often, the actions of some of our species can lead us close to despair. But then all we have to do is look at the rewilding movement, and the ever growing number of people who are on this entirely positive path forward with hearts and minds and boundless passion!
👉 Go here for post, pictures and in-depth article
6) Hima - an ancient Middle-Eastern rewilding practice
'Hima' is an old land-management practice in the Middle East. It's quite straight-forward, really, entirely common sense. Essentially it is to give the land time. Periods of no grazing and no hunting, following by periods of rotational use. To combat desertification, communities across the Middle East are reviving the concept that dates back 1'400 years. Lebanon, for example, has 31 himas covering more than 6% of the country’s land, resulting in improved biodiversity.
“The hima brought us back to our old customs and traditions, with the belief that it is necessary to protect this land from which all people will benefit," says Al Qalab, President of the Bani Hashem Him Society in Jordan's town of Zarqa.
👉 Go here for post and article
7) A word from Keystone, the beaver
In his post, Keystone (so his name) the beaver tells you about his new home, his plans for the future (his good looks) ... and he also tells you a bit about his species and how close it came for him to never have existed because the human species really loves their fur and something called 'castoreum'.
In Keystone's words: "We used to be everywhere, the old ones tell me, everywhere across what they call Eurasia. They say that’s big, really big. But then there were more and more of you and you starting killing us whenever you could. Circle of life and all that, I guess it was in some sort of balance for a bit – but then by what you call the turn of the 20th century 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭. 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭: 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝."
👉 Go here for Keystone's post and video
8) Rewilding is happening all over the world
In his post, Frans Schepers highlights the growing movement - on clear display with the work of the Global Rewilding Alliance. The organization brings together rewilding groups from around the world ... where does it stand, you wonder? There are over 180 alliance member initiatives in 123 countries and across 5 continents. If you know of rewilding organizations (or are part of one or more!), find out whether they're part of the Alliance. If not - jump to it and make it happen!
Frans writes, "It is very encouraging and inspiring to share our success stories, visions and ambitions across all these Alliance partners and feel the global dimension of what we are doing, each of us, in our own context, in our own ways. Diversity in approaches is a huge strength, as there is not ‘one-size-fits-all’ or ‘silver bullet’ to address the opportunities out there, leveraging both results and impact."
👉 Go here for post and article
We end the newsletter as always with an artwork by Chilean science illustrator and painter Mauricio Alvarez (mauricio_alvarez_art on Instagram): This time with a look at the Thorn-tailed rayadito, an - according to Wikipedia 'highly curious and fearless bird', at home in southern Chile and Argentina.
And that's it for this edition! For more rewilding insights and stories from around the globe, use the #rewilding hashtag and follow people, organizations and groups that are as passionate about rewilding as you are.
Have a good week!
Cheers,
D