A three-year study in Portugal’s Greater Côa Valley has shown that grazing by free-roaming, semi-wild horses can help to reduce the risk of wildfire outbreaks and enhance biodiversity in Mediterranean landscapes. It has also highlighted the fact that when groups of different herbivores graze the same landscapes, this may be even more effective at reducing fire risk.
Climate change is increasing the risk of catastrophic wildfire outbreaks in Mediterranean regions. A new study, based on the Greater Côa Valley in Portugal, shows that adopting a holistic approach to landscape management could be the most effective way of preventing such outbreaks, with rewilding playing a key role.
Rewilding Europe’s Natural Grazing Facility works to scale up natural grazing by wild and semi-wild herbivores in European landscapes. The first translocation organised through the facility has seen a group of Exmoor ponies released in Denmark’s Saksfjed Vildmark rewilding initiative.
French NGO TAKH is working to support the conservation of Przewalski’s horses in Europe and Asia. Membership of the European Rewilding Network will advance the team’s rewilding efforts, and enhance the recovery of this iconic animal and the benefits it delivers.
The Saksfjed Wilderness is one of the largest and most aspirational rewilding initiatives in Denmark. Membership of the European Rewilding Network will enhance rewilding efforts.
Alongside other free-roaming herbivores, wild horses can play an essential ecological role in European landscapes and deliver diverse benefits to people. A new and updated guide from Rewilding Europe will help to scale up European horse rewilding by providing the latest scientific and practical information.
Rewilding Europe has just launched the Natural Grazing Facility. By connecting demand and supply of herbivores among organisations dedicated to rewilding principles, its aim is to scale up natural grazing in European landscapes. This will deliver a wide range of benefits to nature and people.
A herd of 10 red deer have just been released in the Velebit Mountains rewilding landscape in Croatia. As part of an ongoing restocking programme, the release will help to restore the population across the landscape to a more healthy level, with benefits for wild nature and local communities.
In the Rhodope Mountains, agricultural subsidies are promoting the intensification of grazing, which is negatively impacting nature and local rewilding efforts. The local team are determined to keep advocating rural policies that allow people to make better use of the socio-economic benefits that rewilding can provide.
Enhancing natural grazing, a key component of rewilding, can deliver multiple benefits. The arrival of a second herd of Tauros in the Iberian Highlands rewilding landscape in Spain is therefore good news for people and wildlife.