Europe

Great return of European wildlife

By Fernando Morán

This initiative pretends to be a definitive upscaling challenge for European Biodiversity via a Large Wild Herbivore (LWH) reintroduction for EU Nature protection gathering as many European public and private agents as possible into this mission with one clear main final goal: to make mandatory in Europe active nature restoration by reintroducing a varied community of LHW to the areas affected by wildfires and/or without extensive stockbreeding grazing. Mandatory, by law.

Large Wild Herbivores Comeback – 2025
Why? Nature management model has failed. An urgent new model is needed.

1) Land abandonment on millions of hectares. End of social use and extensive farmland use due people exodus to cities happening at large scale mainly in mountain range areas.

2) Lack of grazing as the basic process for the rest of nature to thrive, specially living soils

3) General wildfire increase, climate change with more droughts and huge fireload

Solution – The Great Large Wild Herbivore reintroduction.

1) Basic energy/nature process, LWH transform flora into life; living soil, insects, birds, amphibians, reptiles, predators and scavengers. Also lower species risk of extinction. Natural processes restoration and healthier forests due soil change from mineral to living soil produced by LWH fertilization process

2) Lower fuel load, so lower wildfire risk, carbon emissions, climate change and drougth intensity. Balanced ecosystems more resilient to climate piks and healthier.

3) Wild carnivore effect on domestic animals. Significant social conflict reduction for Lynx, Wolf, Brown bear, and others

4) Economy. Economy and businesses raise in remote areas via ecotourism, hunting, forestry, carbon and biocredits.

5) Breed and release wild animals is cheap and affordable in comparison.

The plan.
How to do it?
5 years kickstart, 5 years consolidation.

Involve conservation NGO´s, hunters and media into the Great Wildlife Comeback to make LWH reintroductions happen in pilot projects all over Europe. The existing actors will do the work, by engagement into the idea without creating any new structure rather than the one to link all the agents.

Later engage society and politicians. Hunters will release and monitor wild game species, conservationists the rest of the wild herbivores, both working and lobbying together.

Create the Great Wildlife Comeback initiative; to the point, direct and with concrete actions to contact and spread the idea to all the agents working innature or related, society, politicians, conservation initiatives and hunters for them to actively take action for this idea/program. Initiative will raise funds for the actions to be done, in cooperation with all the agents.

The program takes all the steps for the first creation of pilot projects and aim for the final goal; pilot projects developed by the countries/governments via public and/or private initiative as a mandatory rewilding policy implemented by EU law, but how do we get there?

1) There is already a EU law; the Nature Restoration Law compel countries already now

2) In the name of the climate emergency , the biodiversity loss and the resiliency of the European ecosystems and nature, same way as electric cars use, or solar panels are imposed due to the environmental emergency.

3) In the name of food sovereignty . Millions of wild herbivores equal to Nature`s beauty, high biodiversity, healthy ecosystems, wildfire decline, ecotourism and game-based economy.

II) Create several pilot projects via private or public-private initiative and integrate some existing into this initiative to have a demonstrative effect aiming to end up in a general and widespread

European policy

Scotland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Romania to start with, as the example places where this program can be implemented. Also maybe Ukraine, for after the war country restoration situation.

When the law is defined and on force, create a working wildlife corridor between Iberia to the Ukranian plains linking natural protected areas via restoring the different Wild Large Herbivore species at the different areas.

The tools, or who will do it. Efficiency & integration of existing resources.

I) The Wild Large Herbivores: European bison, Wild horse, Wild ass, Elk, Red, Fallow, and Roe deer, Reindeer, Ibex, Chamoix, Mouflon, Wild rabbit and Beaver.

II) Conservation NGO´s, hunters and their associations, nature specialized media (online media, influencers, tv channels…). Already ongoing projects in Europe working in large landscapes.

III) A very experienced and efficient team to serve as an amalgam between the groups of point II.

Support and institutions who a re a lready keep to participate in develop i ng thi s initiative IUCN (European) bison specialist group. Other species IUCN Specialist Groups –

State forest of the Government of Poland and Bialowieza National Park

Rewilding Europe and related natural grazing projects

Large Herbivore Group UK

International Safari Club linked to all the hunter associations in Europe

Wildlife Estates European Landowners Association.

Hope – Foundation, nature influencer. Communication

Reserve Biologique des Monts D`Azur

Others…

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Oct 2025 Fernando Morán

Large Wild Herbivores Comeback – 2025