Rewilding Futures: Shaping Tomorrow's Wild

How do we build a wilder future for Europe with more space for natural processes like forest regeneration, free flowing rivers, herbivory and carnivory to impact ecosystems, where people and nature can thrive? In Rewilding Europe, we focus on maximizing our impact by demonstrating rewilding across 13 countries and catalyzing further action at landscape scale throughout Europe. By integrating ecological restoration, new nature-based economies and benefits for people and innovative finance mechanisms, rewilding models offer scalable and replicable solutions that sustain ecological impact while incentivizing large-scale adoption. This session will present a set of rewilding models implemented on the ground with rewilding practitioners across a wealth of landscapes. From innovative approaches to coexistence, such as wildlife-smart communities in Central Appennines in Italy, to rewilding hunting concessions in the Velebit Mountains of Croatia, or the recovery of natural grazing dynamics through the comeback of large herbivores in the Iberian Highlands and Greater Coa Valley in Spain and Portugal, we will showcase the success of these models in restoring wilder nature and delivering long-term benefits for ecosystems and local communities.