Today, rewilding is inspiring an ever-growing number of people to support and practice nature recovery. With the theme #RewildingHope, this year’s World Rewilding Day focuses on rewilding’s beneficial impact and uplifting vision. The Rewilding Ukraine team together with local partners has organized several events for World Rewilding Day 2023.

The Danube Delta is one of Europe’s largest and most important wetlands. Efforts by the Rewilding Ukraine team to restore natural water flow here are great news for Dalmatian pelicans and great news for local communities.

At the end of December, an ornithologist Maksym Yakovlev and a zoologist Oleksandr Gaydash traditionally went to the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta to count the Dalmatian pelicans. Due to the war, access to some areas was limited or even closed, but scientists managed to do the counts in many large water bodies of the delta.

The year 2022 is coming to an end in the Danube delta, shared by three countries… To put it mildly, it was a difficult year for the people and nature of Ukraine. Every corner of the country, every business or community was affected by the war.

A new UN report, set to be published today at COP 15, recognises the Danube Delta rewilding landscape as a European nature restoration showcase. The report aims to accelerate nature restoration by providing examples of inspirational nature restoration initiatives and the wide-ranging benefits they are delivering.

Today, global warming is increasingly affecting people and nature across the world. Rewilding is a great way of enhancing the climate change resilience of landscapes and communities.

Not only iconic large animal species are important for nature. Lesser known species, such as the European beaver, also play an important role in the rewilding of natural systems. The fauna and flora of the Danube Delta and adjacent areas create complex, balanced and interdependent ecosystems that support wildlife and people. In these systems, each species has its important place and affects many other species. Let’s talk about beavers: why they are interesting and why they are useful for nature and local communities.

Last week, the construction of an artificial nesting platform for the Dalmatian pelicans was completed on one of the Danube lakes on the south of Ukraine as part of the “Pelican Way Of LIFE” initiative. The Rewilding Ukraine team hopes that this season the flying giants will build their nests on it.

Last week, a group of female fallow deer arrived at the protected Tarutino steppe and was temporarily released into an acclimatization enclosure. They joined the males that settled here two years ago to lay the foundation for a stable population of the species in the region.

A family of three European hamsters was released into the wild in the protected Tarutino steppe in the south of Odesa oblast as part of the cooperation of the Kyiv Zoo, Rewilding Ukraine, and the Tarutino steppe nature and ethnographic park. Hamsters, along with other herbivores reintroduced to the region through rewilding efforts, should restore food chains and enrich the steppe fauna.