Webinar – Rewilding: what does it mean and how can research help to make it climate smart?

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Eurosite’s Management Planning Expert Group invites you to a webinar:

Rewilding: what does it mean and how can research help to make it climate smart?

When: 15 October 2024 between 16:00-17:00 CET

Where: via Zoom ➡️ Register by clicking HERE

Guest speaker: Prof. Dr. Liesbeth Bakker

Liesbeth is senior researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) and professor in rewilding Ecology at Wageningen University & Research. She works on rewilding and ecosystem restoration under global change in freshwater and marine wetlands, grasslands and forest landscapes. During this webinar she will talk about climate smart rewilding as a nature based solution to climate change and biodiversity loss.

About the WildE Project

WildE is a new project funded by Horizon Europe that will develop climate-smart rewilding as a nature-based solution to the twin threats of climate change and biodiversity loss.

The European Union has set out ambitious goals to combat the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims to restore significant areas of degraded ecosystems and to legally protect 30% of Europe’s territory, with 10% under strict protection.

In turn, the EU Climate Law legally binds the member states to become climate neutral by 2050. The EU goals imply that effective ecosystem restoration needs to occur at much larger scales than to date, yet this is still hindered by multiple barriers, including existing policies and governance structures, funding, and a narrow focus on biodiversity and ecosystems.

Rewilding, a form of ecological restoration with an emphasis on reducing human control and relying on ecosystem processes to achieve restoration goals, has the potential to make a significant contribution to the EU goals.

What is rewilding practice?

Liesbeth is the project lead for rewilding practice in the WildE project about she will tell us more during the webinar.

Working with stakeholders at eight carefully selected rewilding sites across Europe to gather first-hand information on how rewilding solutions can effectively support nature and people whilst being economically viable.

Outcomes from this work will include a report on rewilding enablers and constraints in the eight wildE case studies, a report on the effectiveness of different rewilding interventions and a review of the scientific literature on social/policy dynamics concerning rewilding practices.

Join us on 15 October at 16:00 (CET) via Zoom!