Rewilding Europe

Young people and Rewilding Europe – a natural connection!

Nature is strong!

Rewilding Europe is working in now seven, soon nine areas in different countries in Europe. Here, we are working with local people to show how we can give nature more space, and allow it to decide itself how it develops, instead of us actively managing it! That is very exciting; in fact it is a discovery journey: you will be surprised how positively nature responds to being less managed! Rewilding examples in many countries in Europe have shown that nature is very resilient, and that a lot of species come back if we allow them! Think about wolves, deer, storks and many other species of plants and animals. And even more – if we help them a bit, as we do with bringing back European bison to some of their former ranges, such as in the Romanian Carpathians.

Problems in rural areas

We also want to show that rewilding can benefit local people, who used to live and work in these areas. They have seen their children going to school in larger places and cities, in stead of their own villages, and not coming back… Yes, a lot of rural areas in Europe see young people leaving, and their parents stay behind. Of course that has a lot of negative impacts: schools have to be closed, social life is going down, and public services (such as health care) become less and less. Villages are becoming empty, as we can see in large areas across Europe. And also a lot of the local culture disappears, which is so unique for these regions.

A new, wild future?

But maybe there is still a future – and we can turn the problems into an opportunity. Maybe we can manage to interest young people to comeback to – or even stay in the area, and build a future based on wild nature and animals. There are a lot of possibilities: become a bison ranger or a wildlife guide, start a bed and breakfast, become a tourism operator or involved in rewilding projects!

Rewilding Europe is looking how we can connect with young people in our rewilding areas, and help them to build a future. This is not something we can do alone, we need strong partners for that!

Green Teen Team

Rewilding Europe is excited to explore with Green Teen Team Foundation how we can work together, and help connecting young people with our projects. Not only young people from the areas we work in, but also young people living in cities, who might be interested to go back to the countryside and join us. We are developing ideas with the Green Teen team Foundation how we could work together.

We are therefore very excited that Princess Theodora is going to visit our area in Armenis in Romania, where we have released European bison. Princess Theodora will meet with local school children from Armenis and will hear their stories and what they like about the bison, and what it means for them. We are sure this a nice step towards our cooperation!

Adrian Grancea – a living example

A very good example of somebody who decided to stay in his area, as a young boy, and go into the rewilding business, is Adria Grancea in our rewilding area in the Southern Carpathians, Romania. Here is what he told us: ‘’We want to show the young people of Armenis that there are viable employment alternatives to waiting tables in Germany or picking strawberries in Spain. Many of my friends have already left Armenis to work in Bucharest and overseas. I was very happy when I heard about the rewilding project and the opportunity to stay here’’.

Learn more about Rewilding Europe here 

Read about the GTT Project here 

Photograph credits – Staffan Widstrand/Rewilding Europe
https://www.rewildingeurope.com/