The fifth Wild Wonders of Europe indoor exhibition in China, opens Saturday 27/8 2011 in Chengdu, capital of the Sichuan province. Staffan Widstrand will be there, also holding a couple of photographic workshops and meeting with Wild wonders of Europe’s Chinese partners to discuss further cooperation.
A 12-page story, shot on assignment in the Rewilding Europe areas in Spain and Portugal for NGM Netherlands, is published in the magazine’s September issue. The opening spread can be seen here. NGM Staff writer Pancras Dijk visited the rewilding areas Campanarios de Azaba and Faia Brava in Western Iberia, both included in the Rewilding Europe initiative. He tells a story about the changes in the countryside here, about land abandonment, an ageing population and half-open landscapes that are quickly turning into bushland. He also describes the opportunities: the rewilding of a huge area where wild nature can stand on its own feet and where wild nature is the new engine of the local economy. A fantastic story, with all images by Wild Wonders of Europe photographer Staffan Widstrand.
This groundbreaking and very ambitious initiative, with the tag line ”A new beginning. For wildlife. For us”, has launched its new web site today. A very colourful one indeed! Quoting from their Mission statement: Rewilding Europe wants to make Europe a wilder place, with much more space for wildlife, wilderness and natural processes. Bringing back the variety of life for us all to enjoy and exploring new ways for people to earn a fair living from the wild. Rewilding Europe aims to rewild one million hectares of land by 2020, creating 10 magnificent wildlife and wilderness areas of international quality. We will especially focus on Europe’s huge areas of abandoned land, and on providing a viable business case for wild nature. Rewilding Europe is an initiative by WWF Netherlands, ARK Nature, Wild Wonders of Europe and Conservation Capital. All the images are from the Wild Wonders of Europe collection. Check it out https://www.rewildingeurope.com/
Wild Wonders Exhibition in Copenhagen extended to August 31, 2011, and moved to the Kongens Nytorv square. The exhibition, which has reached wide attention from Danish media and received a lot of enthusiastic appreciation from the very wide Copenhagen audience, has now been extended and moved to the Kongens Nytorv square, near the famous Nyhavn bar and restaurant district, at least until August 31. If you haven’t seen it yet, you still have the chance for another two weeks. Enjoy!
An image by Staffan Widstrand/Wild Wonders of Europe is the cover of the German GEO magazine September issue.
”The Wildlife comeback in Europe” is this month’s cover story of the respected magazine, whose German language edition has a print run of some 350 000 copies and well over a million readers. The work done by Wild Wonders of Europe and Rewilding Europe is centre stage in the story. And all the pictures are by the Wild Wonders Dream Team of photographers. In the last months Anke Sparmann, staff writer at the German GEO Magazine travelled across European rewilding reserves. The cover story of GEO’s September issue – published on August 19th – features her journey into a continent getting wilder day by day. Anke experiences the astonishing comeback of some mammals and bird species in Europe and learns about the idea of Rewilding. She takes her readers into some Rewilding Europe project areas: Western Iberia in Spain and Portugal and the Eastern Carpathians in Poland and Slovakia. She wonders how rich our nature used to be – and what it takes to bring back the variety of life to the sparsely populated corners of our continent. Discovering Dutch Oostvaardersplassen, a place famous for its dense wildlife, Anke feels reminded of National Parks in Africa. She realizes that our wildlife has the potential for an almost unbelievable recovery. Will we ever see it happen on a broader level? It is on us to decide, Anke writes: ”What kind of nature do we want?” She finally visits an area in Germany where the grey wolf has moved in again. Here as in other wild places the GEO author experiences the magic of being in the company of wild animals: ”It felt like reaching a clearing after a long walk through a dark forest. It felt like coming home.” The article is illustrated with pictures from Wild Wonders of Europe.
