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Across Europe, animals once thought lost are slowly coming back. Not through miracles, but through years of work, research, and a shift in how we think about nature. What does it take for wildlife to return?At the Portuguese National Rewilding Symposium 2025, held at Porto’s Galeria da Biodiversidade and organised by Rewilding Portugal, this question stood at the centre of the conversation. Researchers, practitioners, and conservationists from across Europe came together for two days to share experiences, challenges, and hopes under one theme: The Return of Wildlife.The phrase sounds romantic, but the stories behind it reveal how complex and interconnected this “return” truly is. Looking Back: The Story of Wildlife

One of our great adaptations, or frailties, depending on who you ask, is to understand the world by deduction. If you come across a new thing in the forest, you immediately, unconsciously assess it for its relative danger. How big? How fast? Does it have claws and growl? Yes, run! Your brain naturally figures out what to do by referencing what you’ve seen or heard before. It’s tempting to deduce and reduce everything like this, and we do, because it’s efficient for our brains. But deduction can betray us. When we reduce the world to neat categories without seeing relationships, we strip away context. And without context, without feeling connected

It’s a late autumn afternoon in Mañón, northern Galicia. We’ve just finished filming for our first crowdfunding campaign and are making our way back to the house. Julius, who’s driving, suddenly stops and points excitedly at the road in front of us. Three horses shyly cross the road before vanishing into the thick brush. Siggi who had jumped out of the car with his camera but returned disappointed. There’s no point in chasing them for the perfect shot, these horses are wild and keep their distance from humans. Well, to be precise, they’re semi-wild, as wild as horses can be in southern Europe today, but in Galicia, they’re more than

Year after year, southern Europe is experiencing extreme wildfires. With part of the Sylvester headquarters located in Portugal and our pilot project based in Galicia, Spain, the fires have been at the forefront of our minds since the very beginning. During our first Sylvester Week, a wildfire broke out right next to where we were staying on the very day we held our association’s founding assembly. The following year, the flames came so close to the homes of some of our team members that they had to evacuate.  And this year, Portugal and Spain, especially Galicia, are facing what may be the worst wildfires to date, with no sign of

Portugal’s forests are at risk. We’re calling for sustainable fire policies to protect nature, climate, and biodiversity.

News that inspires action: Solutions journalism empowers readers to be part of the fight against climate change, the historic return of wild beavers in England and many more in this environmental good news summary of the month march.

Discover inspiring climate wins this month: a rewilding site saved, Paris combats pollution, UK bans single-use vapes, and bumblebee numbers soar in Scotland!

COP16 fell short on biodiversity action, leaving key goals unmet. Lacking concrete plans and funding, leaders must now find ways to turn promises into real protection.

Discover Faixas Vivas, a project promoting sustainable fire prevention through biodiversity and the protection of Portugal’s native ecosystems.

Discover July’s top environmental stories: wild horses restore German mining sites, Medellín cools down with green spaces, the EU commits to nature restoration, and Sweden bans destructive bottom trawling. Read more for the latest in biodiversity and conservation efforts.