Rewilder Weekly #5
Welcome to the latest edition of the Rewilder Weekly!
Allow me to offer two thanks to you: One for being here - thanks to you we've already gone past 2'500 subscribers to the Rewilder Weekly newsletter! And two - thank you for being part of a movement that just keeps on growing, offering concrete examples of better ways forward - and offering hope with every new story of nature restored and rewilded. Progress is happening thanks to people like you - so thanks for being active, for engaging others, for sharing your stories, and for always being vocal about your rewilding passion! Alright then, let's go with this week's eight selected rewilding stories.
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. Or - even easier - just use the #rewilderweekly hashtag and I'll be sure to see it. Thanks for being here, for reading and commenting and sharing.
1) The importance of peatlands restoration
As The Wildlife Trusts wrote in 2021, peatlands have "been damaged, drained, extracted and burnt over decades of misuse." Over the next five years the Cairngorms National Park Authority plans to restore 3,500 hectares of the park’s peatland, trapping thousands of tonnes of carbon. But peatlands are not just hugely important carbon stores, they also support biodiversity, good water quality and more - and in addition the restoration work comes with job opportunities for the local communities.
The IUCN writes that peatlands make up just 3% of the Earth's land surface - and still are the largest carbon store on land. Now, in Scotland - how big do you think that number is? More than 20% of Scotland are peatlands! Learn about the many benefits of restored, healthy peatlands.
👉 Go here for posts and articles
2) Organizations urge EU to reject lowering wolf protection
BirdLife Europe and Central Asia shared the open letter they had penned with other organizations. It urges EU ambassadors to reject the EU Commission's proposal to lower the protection status of the wolf. Vocal minorities keep maintaining far too strong a hold on politicians and keep lobbying to undo the nature-positive steps taken so far.
In the letter, the organizations write: "The Commission’s proposal for the Council Decision to lower the protection status of the wolf is clearly a politically motivated U-turn. Indeed, the EU rejected similar proposals in 2006, 2018 and 2022 given that there was no justifiable scientific basis to alter this species’ protection status. There is still no scientific basis for it now, including in the Commission’s in-depth assessment of the situation of the wolf in the EU that was discussed by the experts from your Member States in the relevant Council’s Working Party, and which should serve as a basis for your deliberations too."
👉 Go here for post and open letter
3) New paper on the upscaling potential of trophic rewilding
The new paper, entitled 'Trophic Rewilding as a Restoration Approach Under Emerging Novel Biosphere Conditions' by Jens-Christian Svenning, Robert Buitenwerf and Liza Le Roux explores trophic rewilding in light of increasingly changing conditions brought on by human-induced global change.
Straight from the paper: "Trophic rewilding has strong upscaling potential via population growth and expansion of wild fauna. It is likely to facilitate biotic adaptation to changing climatic conditions and resilience to ecosystem collapse, and to curb some negative impacts of globalization, notably the dominance of invasive alien plants."
4) Do you know about the 'Sweden's Big Five' project?
In his post, Philippe Birker highlights current carnivore hunting practices in Sweden that seem to fly below the radar. 'Sweden's Big Five' is a carnivore protection project that highlights what's going on. Who are those 5 big carnivores in Sweden, you ask? They are the lynx, wolf, bear, wolverine ... and us. The human species in Sweden seems to be intent on destroying any natural balance that could come about.
In the past, Sweden has been a sanctuary for predators with close to 1500 lynx, 450 wolves, nearly 2'500 bears and close to 700 wolverines. As Philippe Birker writes in his post, "Unfortunately, the current Swedish government has decided that this is too many and that the 10,422,163 humans in Sweden get to shoot these so crucial predators for pleasure. This is f***ed up, and I want to highlight the 'Sweden's Big Five' campaign for you before the weekend."
👉 Go here for Philippe's post - and here for the 'Sweden's Big Five' website
5) Rewilding forest generates revenue for communities
A wonderful story by Fundación Española de Renaturalización - Rewilding Spain and Rewilding Europe about a partnership agreement in the Iberian Highlands. There's lots of good news in this story, a carbon trading agreement, a focus on tourism and other ways for the community the generate income, thus given them (one of many communities faced with depopulation and economic stagnation) the chance to thrive by creating a nature-based economy.
The mayor of Vega del Codorno: "When visitors get to know that we have an old-growth forest here, it will benefit local tourism businesses. Tourism is a very important source of revenue for us. It is important for us that we can inspire other municipalities and landowners to follow in our footsteps. We are more than happy to explain the process involved in signing the agreement, and our motivation behind it.”
👉 Go here for post and article
6) Wonderful progress of Northwoods Rewilding Network
SCOTLAND: The Big Picture released strong figures for the Northwoods Rewilding Network. While only just set up in 2021, Northwoods has expanded year on year and now includes over 70 farms, small estates and community lands. The network’s land partners have all contributed by revitalizing natural habitats, returning missing species and supporting rural jobs, demonstrating the capacity of grassroots rewilding projects to deliver big gains for nature, climate and people.
Here's what can happen if you bring communities together with shared purpose and principles: Scotland: The Big pictures shares that, "the Northwoods land partners have planted over 168,000 native trees, while further setting aside more than 1,000 hectares for natural woodland regeneration. 90 hectares of peatland have been restored and 234 ponds and other wetland habitats have been created. Over 16 kilometres of new hedgerows have been established and 18 kilometres of redundant fencing has been removed."
👉 Go here for post and article
7) Reintroducing endangered horses to Kazakhstan
The discovery and history of the Przewalski's horse is like a miniature of the global drive to conserve, restore and rewild nature. This is the type of horse depicted in the famous European cave paintings some 20'000 years back! The history of the Przewalski's horse is quite something and it is only thanks to zoos that this horse, as close a relative to the prehistoric feral horse as it gets and then extinct in the wild, was brought back from the brink.
Today the Takhi, as this breed is also called, is back - not in big numbers, but getting there. In addition to this hopeful story about Kazakhstan, various breeds or horses are rewilded across Europe, such as the Yakut, the Konik, the Hucul and more - check out Rewilding Europe's site for a look where what happens across Europe >
👉 Go here for post and article
8) Tackling the inbreeding challenges for lynx
An excellent 26min documentary details how the LIFE Lynx project brought 18 lynx from healthy populations in the Carpathian Mountains. The project joined experts, conservationists, researchers, and hunters from five European countries, with a common goal - to save the lynx from extinction.
In addition to lynx translocations, the international team also monitors the lynx, preventing illegal hunting and promoting acceptance of the large carnivore among the local people. Key stakeholders - the hunters from Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Romania and Slovakia are actively involved in the project. In the 70s, hunters and foresters had reintroduced the lynx to Slovenian forests (find a documentary of that here).
👉 Go here for post and documentary
And that's it for this edition. As you know, there's always a great deal more happening and the Rewilder Weekly only offers a curated weekly glimpse. For more insights and stories from around the globe, use the #rewilding hashtag and follow people, organizations and groups focused on and passionate about rewilding.
Have a good week and, again, thanks for subscribing and reading and liking and commenting and sharing and caring and reposting and all that jazz!
Cheers,
D