Let's get wild

Wusstet ihr, dass die Hälfte Österreichs von Wald bedeckt ist? Oder das mindestens 65 Baumarten in Österreich wachsen? In dieser Folge der Podcast Serie Biodiversität im Wald präsentieren wir euch 9 interessante Fakten zum Wald in Österreich. Mal schauen wie viele davon euch schon bekannt sind!

Mehr Informationen zum Projekt: https://biodiv-im-wald.online

Webinar Aufzeichnung: Positiver Einfluss großer Beutegreifer auf den Wald

Webinar Aufzeichnung: Wo der Wolf jagt wächst der Wald

This podcast series is part of the project Multiperspektivischer Blick auf die Biodiversität im Wald. Over the next six months, we will take a look at the exciting world of biodiversity in forests, especially in Austria and in Germany, and get an insight into different topics through interviews with experts from the field. Thus, this series is in German language.

Diese Podcast Serie ist Teil des Projekts Multiperspektivischer Blick auf die Biodiversität im Wald, welches vom BMLRT und der EU gefördert wird. Im Verlauf des nächsten halben Jahres werden wir einen Blick in die spannende Welt des Waldes werfen, uns näher mit dessen Flora und Fauna beschäftigen, erfahren wie neue Arten einerseits und Chance und anderseits Risiko für die Biodiversität im Wald ist, wie Waldbrände den Wald beeinflussen, warum diese immer häufiger werden und wie eine naturnahe und nachhaltige Waldwirtschaft der Zukunft ausschauen könnte. Diese Inhalte werden auch durch Interviews mit Experten aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum untermalen.

Mehr Informationen zum Projekt: https://biodiv-im-wald.online

The year 2020 was an unexpected and wild year for many of us. A year that has been characterised by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also where a lot of other things happened. Great things, that have supported the work of the European Wilderness Society and its Wilderness Advocates around the world. A year in which the European Wilderness Society adapted to new circumstances, established new alliances and cooperations with new partners, developed new communications techniques and even reduced our CO2 footprint.

As this turbulent year comes to an end, we can conclude that international online communication is more important than ever before. This year, during every weekday, the European Wilderness Society provided its followers with a new informative article. Topics ranged from Wilderness, to wildlife, our coexistence with nature, or nature conservation in general. All this information reached over 340 000 readers, a staggering 30% increase compared to 2019!

Here is the list of some of the top articles that our followers read most this year:

• 180 hunters kill one Wolf pack in Norway
• First bear in Germany in 16 years
• As countries go on lockdown, nature goes wild
• New study proves wolves and livestock can peacefully coexist
• Where in Europe does Wilderness still exist?

When many countries enforced travel restrictions during the first global lockdown, the European Wilderness Society postponed all planned field activities. For example, we planned many great visits, to certify newly identified Wilderness candidates. Also, the Wilderness experts planned to visit several of the first audited Wilderness areas for a re-audit. Yet, with the travel restrictions this was not a responsible action. Therefore, the European Wilderness Society came up with an alternative to draw international attention to the beautiful Wilderness in Europe: the International Wilderness Week.

What an amazing and successful 5-day International Wilderness Week it was. With almost 100 speakers from 30 different countries, and many tens of thousands of followers via Zoom and various social media, it asks for a second edition. Write it down in your calendars: 18th to 22nd October 2021 - International Wilderness Week!

Throughout the year, the European Wilderness Society has worked on many ongoing as well as new exciting projects. To name a few:

• Seventeen great partners, under the lead of BIO AUSTRIA Niederösterreich und Wien and with support of the European Wilderness Society, started the LIFEstockProtect project started this year.
• In both Interreg Central Europe projects, BEECH POWER and Centralparks, interesting field visits, workshops and other activities were organised
• European Wilderness Society hosted a webinar-series with the Vlado Vancura Wilderness Academy.
• New material was produced for the 'Respect Nature' project, an initiative of the European Wilderness Society
• The 'Clean up Synevyr' project, co-financed by EOCA, was implemented with great online and on-site activities
• A follow-up Youth Green Conference, financed by Erasmus, has kicked off
• In Ukraine, the European Wilderness Society organised jointly with NGO Forza and others the Uzhgreenfest
• Webinars and new publications were presented online for the Forest biodiversity project
• and much more...

Also, the Interreg Volunteer Youth initiative provided us with another group of great wild volunteers! Read about their adventures on the Wilderness Diary. In support of local citizens engagement, they even organised several small-scale events. For example, the successful wildlife tracking in Slovenia together with Dinaricum in Triglav National Park. And just last week, the IVYs organised another activity, including a fun EU Nature Quiz and Christmas chit chat!

Our team is confident that 2021 will be another great year, full with new experiences, adventures and friends. We warmly welcome your support, while we continue with our efforts to protect Europe's wildest places. We also want to especially thank our more than 200 active donors who are helping us with their ongoing contribution to protect Europe's last Wilderness and its Wildlife. Without you we would not be as successful as we are.

We wish you a happy and wild new year!

Anni, Gintare, Gudrun, Hanna, Iryna, Julia, Jonas, Laura, Max, Nick, Otto, Robin, Timothy and Vlado

Max Rossberg joined the TV-debate from Rai Südtirol in their program ‘Pro und Contra’. The question is whether the Wolf returning to Südtirol, the Austrian and the Bavarian Alps  should be eradicated and the alps turned into a wolf-free zone. This is what the farming associations and the hunting organizations in these countries are demanding. Max Rossberg discussed this with Siegfried Rinner, the director of the Südtiroler farmers’ association.

Watch the full program here.

Furthermore, Max Rossberg joined the Rai Südtirol radio-show Mittagsmagazin. During the show, Max answered the various calls and questions from the listeners all demanding the eradication of the wolf in the alps. In addition, stunningly a major of an Italian village announced that he would advise his game wardens to shoot any wolf regardless of the protection status as defined in the FFH directive as well as the Italian law.

Click here to listen to the show here (start at 36:40 min).

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The traditional wisdom is “A fed bear is a dead bear”. We tend to follow the traditional research by relocating bears who approach garbage in Romania and even resort to capturing and killing bears who get close to human settlements to look for food.

The believe is, that once a bear gets used to human food, he will lose his appetite for natural food sources and stop foraging naturally.

Dr. Lynn Rogers and a small community in the USA has actually scientifically shown that the number of human conflict situation has decreased in an area where black bears have been hand fed by humans. The food being fed to the bears consist of nuts including pecans, hazelnuts and even peanuts.

The bears are still weary of humans they do not know, the only resort to the feeding stations if the natural food resources become scarce and are not conditioned to rely solely on the feeding by humans.

But why don’t you listen to Dr. Lynn Rogers himself on how he came to feed bears contrary to popular belief.