About wildE.

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.

However, until now the approach has mostly been limited to local conservation initiatives scattered across the continent without a systematic consideration of aspects of climate change mitigation or adaptation.

Climate-smart rewilding as developed by wildE aims to overcome these barriers by taking a more holistic approach that considers climatic, economic and societal challenges. This makes ecological restoration a financially viable nature-based solution which benefits public and private stakeholders.

wildE unites experts from the environmental sciences, social sciences and economics to address climate-smart rewilding solutions. In-depth research at eight carefully selected sites across Europe and with a broad range of stakeholders will assess how such solutions can effectively support nature and people whilst being economically viable.

Through the use of detailed surveys and models, wildE will evaluate the potential impact of rewilding on carbon and biodiversity, as well as its ability to help the EU achieve its climate, land use, economic and societal goals, today and in a warmer future.

wildE will work closely with policy makers, local communities and companies to produce new insights, methods and tools for climate-smart rewilding. A new web platform, the Rewilding Knowledge Hub, will provide space for stakeholders to collaborate on rewilding challenges and opportunities.

What we’re working on.

  • Rewilding baselines

    Identifying factors that make rewilding attempts more likely to be successful by developing a framework for climate-smart rewilding and using European-wide data to identify rewilding opportunities.

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  • Rewilding practice

    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.

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  • Rewilding futures

    Using advanced modeling techniques and rewilding scenarios to better understand how environmental and societal changes in the future might affect the potential for rewilding in Europe.

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  • Rewilding synthesis

    Bringing together the new research and lessons from wildE to produce practical outputs and tools. These include: guidelines, policy recommendations and online tools.

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  • Rewilding dialogue

    Ensuring there is effective two-way dialogue with key rewilding stakeholders. This includes engaging local stakeholders at eight rewilding sites and working with key scientific and policy stakeholders.

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Partners

Meet the management team.

  • Arndt Hampe

    Arndt Hampe is the project coordinator and leader of project management. He is research director at the French National National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), where he works on the dynamics, ecology and biodiversity of forests under global change.

  • Luke Lauprete

    Luke Lauprete is the project co-lead for project coordination and management. He has six years of experience at INRAE Transfert in the management of H2020 and Horizon Europe projects.

  • Henrique Miguel Pereira

    Henrique Miguel Pereira is the project lead for rewilding baselines.

  • Georg Winkel

    Georg Winkel is the project co-lead for rewilding baselines.

  • Liesbeth Bakker

    Liesbeth Bakker is the project lead for rewilding practice.

  • Sven Wunder

    Sven Wunder is the project co-lead for rewilding practice.

  • Almut Arneth

    Almut Arneth is the project lead for rewilding futures.

  • Mark Rounsevell

    Mark Rounsevell is the project co-lead for rewilding futures.

  • Jette Bredahl Jacobsen

    Jette Bredahl Jacobsen is the project lead for rewilding synthesis.

  • Lluis Brotons

    Lluis Brotons is the project lead for rewilding synthesis.

  • Paul Mahony

    Paul Mahony is the project lead for rewilding dialogue.

  • Susanna Gionfra

    Susanna Gionfra is the project co-lead for rewilding dialogue.