Europe is working to restore and rewild

its natural environment.

The 2024 Nature Restoration Law aims to renew and protect 20 percent

of the European Union’s degraded territory by 2030. Europe is fostering

hundreds of bold rewilding initiatives, which leads to a cascade of

benefits for wildlife and people.

Intense human pressures, predominantly urban development and heavy

agriculture, degrade and fragment habitats. More ecologically intact

areas tend to be remote and mountainous.

Many projects now under way are helping to restore nature’s balance.

Rewilding efforts seek to bolster water systems for flood mitigation,

reintroduce critical species to sustain habitats, use natural grazing to lower

fire risk, and promote coexistence of predators to maintain biodiversity.

Landscape

rewilding

project

Potential wildlife

corridors would facilitate

movement of animals and

help prevent extinction

of flora and fauna.

More intact

Less

intact

Built-up area

Christine Fellenz and Brandon Shypkowski, NGM Staff

Sources: Isabella Tree; Laurien Holtjer and Raquel Filgueiras, Rewilding Europe;

Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme; Nestor Fernández, German Centre

for Integrative Biodiversity Research; H.L. Beyer and others, Conservation Letters, 2019;

National Geographic Society (low-impact areas); European Environment Agency; ESA

Europe is working to

restore and rewild its

natural environment.

The 2024 Nature Restoration Law

aims to renew and protect 20 percent

of the European Union’s degraded

territory by 2030. Europe is fostering

hundreds of bold rewilding initiatives,

which leads to a cascade of benefits

for wildlife and people.

Scientists want to connect

critical habitats for wildlife.

A network of pathways between

habitats would facilitate movement of

animals across the landscape and help

prevent extinction of flora and fauna.

Many projects are under way

attempting to restore nature’s balance.

Rewilding efforts seek to bolster

water systems for flood mitigation,

reintroduce critical species to sustain

habitats, use natural grazing to lower

fire risk, and promote coexistence of

predators to maintain biodiversity.

Landscape rewilding project

Christine Fellenz and

Brandon Shypkowski, NGM Staff

Sources: Isabella Tree; Laurien Holtjer

and Raquel Filgueiras, Rewilding Europe;

Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes

Programme; Nestor Fernández, German

Centre for Integrative Biodiversity

Research; H.L. Beyer and others,

Conservation Letters, 2019; National

Geographic Society (Low-Impact Areas);

European Environment Agency; ESA