Today, many countries celebrate World Rivers Day. Rivers are very important to people because they provide us with many important things: food, clean water, building materials, transportation corridors, opportunities for recreation and tourism, and much more. But not only people gravitate to rivers and water bodies. Rivers and especially wetlands are home, kitchen or bedroom for many plants and animals of our planet. More than 40% of species are associated with these natural systems in one way or another. Let’s figure out what the term “biodiversity” means, which you can hear quite often from ecologists, and how we are related to it.

The restoration of wildlife populations can play a game-changing role stabilising our climate. Rewilding is the best way to enable such a recovery.

Today, on International Vulture Awareness Day, ornithologist Mykhailo Nesterenko (Executive Director of Rewilding Ukraine) will talk about these mysterious birds: why they are important in nature, whether we have them in our region, why they decline, and much more.

The first wild baby kulan born in Tarutino steppe! The foal was born in a group of kulans that were released into the wild the last fall. To support the species reintroduction in the area, another group of kulans was released this spring by the team of Rewilding Ukraine after the acclimatization period.

Dear friends, partners, and supporters, with the year approaching to an end we would like to look back and reflect on some of the major achievements we have made together this year from restoring the swathes of delta landscape, return of the wildlife, and to support of local economies and awareness-raising.

The arrival of 20 more kulan on the Tarutino Steppe is part of a long-term reintroduction programme. The animals will fill an important ecological niche and enhance biodiversity.

3 red deers and 3 fallow deers settled on the Ermakiv island in the Danube Biosphere Reserve as part of the partnership between Rewilding Ukraine and Feldman Ecopark. Animals will complement the natural grazing on the island and promote eco-tourism in the region.

A group of steppe marmots, translocated to the Tarutino Steppe in 2020, are acclimatising well to their new home. Their release into the wild, which is part of a long-term reintroduction programme, is helping to create a more ecologically complex steppe environment.

2020 was not an easy year and you have probably also suffered from it in one way or another. The work and lives of our team were disturbed significantly, starting from few team members got sick with the COVID-19 and following the quarantine restrictions such as closed borders, many bureaucratic obstacles, ban on public events like festivals, education campaigns, press-tours and else.

A herd of 40 Konik horses has just been released onto two islands in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta. Following the translocation of 23 animals to the island last year, this new group will further enhance wild nature through their grazing and aid the development of nature-based tourism.