Rewilder Weekly #30

Welcome to the latest edition of the Rewilder Weekly. Here are this week's eight selected stories. Let's rewild the world!

👉 As a reminder: If you come across stories you'd like to see featured in an upcoming edition of the Rewilder Weekly, send them to me and I'll gladly do what I can.

1) May Scotland become the world's first rewilding nation

The The Scottish Rewilding Alliance have put together a pathway for Scotland to become the world's first rewilding nation. The need is as urgent as it's ever been, the goal is the restoration of 30% of Scotland's land and sea. The alliance members engage the Scottish people to an amazing degree. There are more than 150 rewilding projects - and all of that has led to 80% of the Scottish public wanting their government to support rewilding.

Just a few days ago, a coalition of organizations have presented their findings with a clear pathway to the Scottish government. Karen Blackport told Minister for Climate Action Alasdair Allan that, "This is about choice and opportunity. Declaring Scotland the world’s first Rewilding Nation would be a powerful statement of intent that we want to be a world leader in nature restoration. Our pathway sets out a route offering the Scottish Government the opportunity to show global leadership."

👉 Go here for post and articles

2) How to ban bottom trawling... with art

While bottom trawling - the destructive dragging of massive nets along the ocean floor - is illegal near the shore, it didn't stop industrialized fishing from going in at night, time and time again. In the early 2000s, the Tuscan government dropped concrete blocks into the see in an effort to disrupt the trawlers - but the blocks were too far apart and trawling nets were not destroyed. In came local fisherman Paolo Fanciulli with fervor... and an amazing new idea.

He came up with the idea of going bigger and better than those concrete blocks. He asked if the nearby famed Carrara marble quarry would donate 2 blocks ... they donated 100 instead! He quickly generated interest for artists -and the first huge sculptures were sent to the seabed in 2007. By 2023 the nonprofit La Casa dei Pesci says that 44 such sculptures are down there. The engagement by Planet Wild has just added five more. As you can see - some fifty huge marble blocks still need sculpting and be added to the seabed. Those artworks form a protective line, but at the same time also create new and safe habitats - and an underwater art gallery for divers to enjoy!

👉 Go here for post and articles

3) Standing up for wolves, now even more so

It has been a terrible week for wolves, a terrible week among an increasing number of terrible weeks. After the EU's decision, the Bern Conventions committee has also voted against upholding wolf protection. By lowering the status, even more wolves, including their young, will be slaughtered. The fantastic work of bringing this keystone species back from the brink in Europe these past decades, is now being undone. The science was ignored, decisions were purely politically motivated. Entire packs are now slaughtered ... but if anything this will only strengthen the resolve of everyone serious about nature recovery.

In its post, Rewilding Europe explains what happened and how we must go forward from here with an ever louder call for coexistence with wolves. They write, "While we are shocked by this decision, we will not let it dampen our determination. On the contrary, if there was ever a reason to join forces, it is now. Together, we can educate, inspire, and empower communities to embrace coexistence and demonstrate how it can be done. Wolves are key to keeping nature healthy and balanced and we have the tools and knowledge to make coexistence work."

👉 Go here for post and further insights

4) NPR visits Chile's next national park with Kris Tompkins

According to the 8min podcast (with transcript), Chile will get its 47th national park next spring. The national park at Cape Froward at the southernmost tip of the South American continent will have 315'000 acres and comprise multitudes of flora and fauna. What Kris and Doug Tompkins began in the 1990s, has led to the creation of 15 national parks in Chile and Argentina by now. Quite amazing and, as Kris says, she's nowhere near ready to slow down - she just keeps taking on next challenges.

Here's a fascinating thing I've read in the transcript: Apparently, since the creation of the first national park in 1926, every single Chilean president has created at least one national park. Now just imagine that EVERY leader of every country in the world felt the obligation to do that - what a legacy, and what tremendous and ever growing benefit for ever more healthy and protected nature across the globe. We should make that a law somehow - going forward, every leader has the obligation to create at least one new national park. Wowsa.

👉 Go here for post and podcast

5) The quest to restore Britain's temperate rainforests

Here's a clip and article about Earth Minutes get-together with Merlin Hanbury-Tenison of the Thousand Year Trust . The trust is dedicated to restoring Atlantic temperate rainforests, with a mission to triple the amount of rainforest growing across Britain over the next thirty years - from the current 330'000 acres to one million acres.

Merlin explains rainforests from tropical to temperate and hopes that more and more people rediscover nature again. He says that the British are a rainforest people and adds, "That’s why I’m baffled that people in the UK think that we’re not a country with great nature - if you want to see the natural world, you go to Costa Rica, Brazil, or British Columbia. But the UK is a rainforest island - we’ve just forgotten, because we have short memories and shifting baseline syndrome is very real. If I can get people in the UK to remember that rainforests are our home, then that’s a good step in the right direction."

👉 Go here for post and clip and article

6) Rewilding Rhodopes celebrates tens years of nature recovery

Rewilding Rhodopes has just celebrated ten years of progress in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains, transforming the landscape into a pioneering showcase for nature recovery. Rewilding Europe writes that "Collaborative efforts have brought about the comeback of species like European bison, Konik horses, griffon vultures, and red and fallow deer, revitalizing ecosystems and breathing new life into local communities."

Heck, I can only suggest that you check through the article and pictures - you'll undoubtedly want to visit! Who wouldn't want to spot bison - and more than 120 wild horses - and vultures, of course! A healthy ecosystem needs scavengers and vultures are scavenger royalty. With so much in place in the Rhodope Mountains, the recovery of vulture populations is another important step in putting together all the elements that will fully realize the rewilding vision.

👉 Go here for post and article

7) We can fix it all - if we finally tackle meat and dairy

On my weekly quest for rewilding stories, I come across countless great examples or projects big and small, here and there. But we all know that nature needs to flow. Bits and pieces make for disconnected patches of nature recovery - but we need those patches to work together - we need those patches to work - patchwork! We need patchwork quilts covering large swaths of land. We need to scale rewilding efforts dramatically if we want to achieve the envisioned 30x30 (30% of lands and seas by 2030).

Right now it is always an uphill struggle, slowed down by red tape and lobbies, to even acquire land for rewilding projects. The problem is, quite simply, the size of the meat and dairy industries. More than half of the world's habitable land is used for agriculture... and more than 3/4 of that land is used for livestock. But barely a politician dares addressing what needs addressing - if we downsize the meat and dairy industries by half, we can have global food security, we can drive nature recovery at scale (with a great deal of land no longer needed for livestock grazing and livestock feed), we can passively and actively rewild like never before - and all of that will dramatically help fight climate change, too.

👉 Go here for post and my in-depth ruminations on the pesky subject

8) A joyous 2024 wrap-up by the RSPB

Here's a collection of twelve slides. The RSPB asks its countless bird-loving members, "Which slide sums up your 2024?" The first one reads, "Number of conversations interrupted to point our a bird? 78. (And you'd do it again, too.)" Another one goes, "Birdsong warmed your soul 163 times. Is there any better feeling?" Or how about this one, "You described 46 birds as 'brat'. Charli would be proud."

Read all twelve and then you may just say to yourself, I need to be outdoors quite a bit more in the coming year. I want those feelings, I want that connection. Allow me to give away what it says on the last slide - I should give us all a nudge in the outdoors direction: "You got outdoors and watched a sunset every month. You noted the shortening and lengthening of the days, the shifting arc of the sun, the changing color of the leaves, the flowers blossoming and fading, the nesting, fledging and migration of birds. You fostered a deep and personal connection with nature and its seasons. You are a different person." Hopefully, at the end of the next year, many, many more will have that strong connection.

👉 Go here for post and slides

We end the newsletter as always with an artwork by Chilean science illustrator and painter Mauricio Alvarez (mauricio_alvarez_art on Instagram): This time Maurico gives us a rendering of the beautiful upland or Magellan goose (Chloephaga picta).

That's it for this week's edition! For more rewilding insights and stories from around the globe, use the #rewilding hashtag and follow people, organizations and groups that are as passionate about rewilding as you are. Let's keep connecting and growing the movement!

Wishing you a good week.

Cheers,

D