Good news of the month: October 2024
Exciting steps for nature: 500k oysters in the Humber, Spain’s 1st marine park, and eagles return to Cumbria. A global push for climate action is gaining momentum!
Introducing Project Faixas Vivas: Nature-Based Fire Prevention
Discover Faixas Vivas, a project promoting sustainable fire prevention through biodiversity and the protection of Portugal’s native ecosystems.
The Nature of Nature
Explore the nature/culture divide, its origins, and how rethinking this concept can reshape our understanding of humanity’s role in nature.
GOOD NEWS OF THE MONTH: September 2024
Discover the latest in environmental protection and climate action in our roundup of important developments. The Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board has launched an innovative Instagram filter, “Selfie Control,” to help visitors safely photograph wildlife by maintaining the correct distance. Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice is set to hold landmark hearings on global climate obligations, a case that could shape the future of climate litigation. In Sicily, a massive freshwater reserve has been uncovered beneath the Iblei Mountains, potentially offering relief from the island’s severe drought. Lastly, the EU’s LIFE programme has shown a tenfold return on investment, sparking calls for increased environmental funding. Dive deeper into these stories and their implications by exploring the full articles linked below.
Nature’s Landscapers: How Big Herbivores Are Reshaping Europe’s Ecosystems
Ever wondered how large herbivores like cattle, horses, and bison can transform entire landscapes? These gentle giants are more than just grazers—they’re nature’s landscapers, playing a crucial role in rewilding projects across Europe. From enhancing biodiversity to reducing wildfire risks, their impact is nothing short of remarkable. Discover how these animals are turning depleted areas into thriving ecosystems and why their role in our environment is more important than ever. Dive into the full story to see how big herbivores are reshaping the future of our natural world.
Good News of the Month: August 2024
Discover August’s top environmental stories: wildlife encounters can boost your wellbeing, Copenhagen trials sustainable tourism program, Swiss seniors win historic climate case. Read more for the latest in biodiversity and conservation efforts.
Environmental news of the month: July
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.
Environmental news of the month: June
European bison roam Portugal once more and help capture and store atmospheric carbon in Romania, Welsh seagrass nursery flourishes, Curlew chicks return in Fota Island, Nature unveils a stunning Highland restoration, and a New Ally against Big Oil!
Your Vote, Our Planet: Navigating the European Parliament Elections
The forthcoming European Parliament elections play a critical role in determining our stance on climate change and nature conservation. With the EU’s legislation and subsidies exerting substantial influence, voting becomes imperative to ensure your voice is heard. Yet, the complexity of the EU and its parties presents a challenge in decision-making. To aid in this process, we’ve curated a guide detailing the parties’ stances on climate and nature issues, complemented by essential election process information.
Environmental News of the Month: May
A regenerative superpower against marine oil spills, Nature becomes a musician on Spotify and how volunteers improved water quality by planting one million mosses!
How to buy land for Rewilding
What if we simply buy land and rewild it? It’s a question many young people ask themselves. But how do you buy land for rewilding? From finding the right size for your rewilding project to how to finance it, we are sharing our top tips to look for land to rewild.
How Sylvester’s WildToken Initiative Empowers Youth to Restore Nature
For young people and communities, getting into rewilding can often be difficult due to financial hurdles in acquiring land. Challenged by this, Sylvester Rewilding created a way to empower young people and communities to collectively finance, own, govern, and rewild abandoned land areas in Europe. Read about the journey bringing together Sylvester Rewilding and how it creates a new and revolutionary way to scale up rewilding.
Bumblebees and why they’re vital to our survival
Save the bumblebees! Sounds a bit funny, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t it be ‘save the bees’? Well, bumblebees are even more important than bees when it comes to pollination, ecosystem health, and the stability of our food system. Find out why.
Environmental News of the Month: April
Citizen science in Germany, community seed banks in Brazil and a whale thought to be extinct in the North Atlantic ocean – here are our environmental news of the month!
Rewilding Book Recommendations
For “World Rewilding Day”- Week We asked our team what are their favourite rewilding books.
Here are the Sylvester Team top four recommendations.
Top 5 Rewilding Documentaries
Explore the world of rewilding with our top 5 documentaries. Witness stunning landscapes and heartwarming narratives that illuminate the vital work of restoring nature’s balance. Explore these must-watch documentaries and embark on a journey of conservation, preservation, and reconnection with nature.
Wolf Protection in the EU: All you need to know about the current debate!
The EU is deciding on whether wolves can be hunted in Europe again – a huge setback for the protection of the predator. Here’s all you need to know.
Grazers in the sun: our first rewilding workshop
This weekend, we discussed rewilding and large grazers’ impact on ecosystems before going to the field and exploring how they shape landscapes!
Exploring the World of Invasive Species: Insights from invasive species experts Hélia Marchante and Elizabete Marchante
Managing invasive species is vital in rewilding because they threaten native biodiversity and ecosystems. To gain deeper insights into invasive species, their challenges, and management strategies, we’ve interviewed Hélia Marchante and Elizabete Marchante from Invasoras.pt.
Environmental News of the Month: February
The EU Parliament adopts Nature Restoration Law, energy co-ops in Greece and how swamp cities can replace concrete jungles!
Bits&Species European Bison
Meet the ecosystem architect: European Bison, also known as Wisent. Once nearly hunted to extinction, these giant grazers are now celebrating a stunning comeback in Europe, thanks in large part to rewilding efforts. These majestic creatures once played a vital role in shaping Europe’s landscape, and now they’re reclaiming their place through rewilding.
Environmental News of the Month: January 2024
The EU battles greenwashing, a mole re-appears after over 80 years of “extinction” and repair and second hand are on the rise – find out all the details here!
Complex systems: How ants reveal the interactive complexity in our environment
In our environment, things are often intertwined in an almost inexplicable way. But the science of complex system gets closer to how even small changes can have enormous effects.
Sylvester’s January Update
Why we put Julia on a rope into a river, Richie went to a German climate fair and more news from January!
Nature’s Answer to Flooding Chaos
How rewilding can tackle our increasing struggle with flooding. An overview of the roots of our problem with floods and the rewilding techniques that help to solve them.
CORK OAKS: meet the rewilding super hero from the Iberian Peninsula
In our series, ‘Bits and Species,’ we are debunking the myths surrounding species from the European landscape and providing you with all the essential information. This time, we are delving into the captivating world of the Cork Oak, a true superhero in European rewilding. https://youtu.be/XspJVaOLC8I?si=cg9sOhX7RdjyBJC6
Exploring Nature Protected Areas: A Comprehensive Guide
This comprehensive guide aims to shed light on the diverse landscape of nature protected areas. It gives a short overview of different nature protected area types in Portugal, and tries to fit rewilding into the scheme of nature protected areas.
All you need to know about the ‘Nature Restoration Law’
In the past month, we have been sharing updates and calls to action surrounding the EU’s nature restoration law. The realisation of this law has undergone some important developments in the past weeks, that we would like to share with you. We want to take this update on the latest developments as an opportunity to give you a rundown of the most important points, developments, and challenges of the law and explain why it is crucial to us. So, let’s start in order.
Rewilding Glossary
Dive into the lexicon of ecological restoration and conservation with our rewilding glossary. From apex predators to trophic cascades, this glossary provides a concise guide to all the essential vocabulary you need to discuss rewilding.
The problem with EUCALYPTUS in Portugal
Driven by economic interests, eucalyptus plantations have expanded extensively, with awareness slowly catching up regarding the strain they impose on native environments.
In an effort to shed light on the adverse effects of eucalyptus and promote the search for sustainable alternatives, we’ve crafted a video covering everything you need to know about the impact of eucalyptus here in Europe.
Nature’s Mysteries Unveiled: Must-Have Apps for Rewilding Enthusiasts
Phones often get blamed for disconnecting us from nature and the world around us, but they can also be powerful tools to rewild our life and reconnect us with the natural world. And here is how!
Understanding Native, Invasive, and Non-Native Species in Ecosystem
Welcome to our ‘Bits&Species’ blog series, where we delve into the Western European flora and fauna to provide you with a better understanding of the natural world that surrounds you. Ecosystems, which are highly interconnected, can be significantly affected by even small changes, such as the introduction of a new species. This often results in a loss of biodiversity and weakens the ecosystems. To address ecosystem and biodiversity loss, it is crucial to distinguish which species are native to a habitat and which may pose a threat to it. In this post, we aim to offer insights into the terms native, invasive, and non-native, which are fundamental in the field of biology for describing the origin and impact of species within specific ecosystems.
Make Your Garden Winter-Ready, Rewilding Style
Autumn is the perfect time to enjoy the last warm sunlight before the long winter. It’s also the ideal moment to prepare your garden for the cold season. Here are some tips on how to get your garden winter-ready, rewilding style.
Bits&Species: The Power of Keystone Species
Keystone species can change the development of a whole ecosystem. Find out why they’re so essential in rewilding – and some examples you might not have thought about being keystones in ecology.
Rewilding action at Quinta Messejana
We successfully did our first rewilding action in collaboration with Quinta da Messejana, and the response was overwhelming! Join in our first Vlog and get a peek behind the scenes of the rewilding action, as well as all the ins and outs of the project.
Rewild your life #2 How to build a Bug Hotel
Small urban spaces, like gardens, play a crucial role in the success of rewilding. To support small-scale rewilding, Sylvester has started collecting interventions that turn your small space into a rewilding oasis, helping connect rewilding areas and species. Let’s dive into the first intervention: building a bug hotel.
On rewilding the mind
Yellow rays break the dancing surface of the Atlantic ocean. A school of sardines anxiously hushes through the curtain of the afternoon light. Time and time again these moments leave me mesmerised by how brilliant, how unimaginably creative, diverse and beautifully chaotic the natural world is. And yet it makes me wonder how much bigger, more diverse and frequent these events must have been 100, 500 or even 2000 years ago!
Rewild your life #1 Podcast recommendations
There are numerous small actions that everyone can undertake today to add a touch of wilderness to their lives. To get inspired here are a few podcasts that dive deep into the topic of rewilding and fill you with excitement through captivating stories of rewilding initiatives across the globe.
The Core principles of rewilding
To align and facilitate rewilding efforts, practitioners all over Europe have decided on ten core principles that also we at Sylvester aim to follow. All principles are equally important and are at the core of our efforts.
What is rewilding?
At Sylvester we want to create more wilderness across Europe using the method of rewilding – but what exactly is rewilding and how does it work? In this blog post we give you all the ins and outs on rewilding.
Happy Earth Day! Rewild Your Everyday Life!
Today, we are celebrating Earth Day. But Earth Day is not just for today, it’s for every day. We want to share three ideas with you on how to celebrate our planet all year round.
The importance of fungi for the environment
As we speak, fungi are making soil, producing food, making medicines, nourishing and killing animals and plants, influencing the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. As you’ll learn in this article, they can stretch out for miles, glow in the dark and communicate with each other.
Wildtokens Explained
WildTokens are your ticket to the European rewilding movement and you can get them through us, of course. But what exactly is a Token? What can you do with it and what makes our Tokens so wild?
The Fortune of the Commons
With these principles in mind and the vision that natural spaces should be sustainably governed, taken care of and providing value to all stakeholders, we at Sylvester aim to create strong communities around our rewilding plots, offering a fair, local and sustainable way forward for climate protection.
Monthly Inspiration: December
Find out about some people and stories we’ve been taking inspiration from!
Our approach to rewilding
Here at Sylvester transparency is one of our core values, but as a wise saying goes “communication is not key, its comprehension”. Therefore, we would like to take the time and explain the whats, hows and whys of our plans in this blog. Today we want to start explaining what we envision when we refer to rewilding our plots.
