Rewilding Experiences

Looking for a hands-on experience to learn all about rewilding in the field?

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Rewilding Experiences

Looking for a hands-on experience to learn all about rewilding in the field?

Rewilding Apennines now offers the opportunity to personally contribute to rewilding through a pratical and immersive programme with the team in the Central Apennines!

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Upcoming: Rewilding Weekend 7-8 October 2023

A weekend dedicated to natural paradises, fauna and typical cuisine.

We will explore together the “Zompo dello Schioppo” nature reserve, with its wonderful waterfalls, and the ruins of Morino Vecchio. We will get to know more about the wild animals that inhabit the central Apennines thanks to the analysis of some camera traps, and we will spend the night in close contact with nature, sleeping in a refuge after a dinner based on local products.

The next Rewilding Weekend will be held October 7-8. We still have some spots available! Click below for more information on the program, or sign up by clicking on the registration form!

More info

Sign up now

Laurien Holtjer

Rewilding Experiences: the best way to discover rewilding

What is the best way to discover rewilding if not to live it yourself, experiencing it in the field, through a programme specifically designed to connect you with a wild landscape and it’s local communities.

Our Rewilding Experiences offer you the opportunity to explore the Central Apennines rewilding landscape, to meet with people who live in the ecological corridors and deal daily with wildlife coexistence, to help the team with practical rewilding actions, and to support the economy of small but fascinating Apennine villages.

Check all our available Experiences

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The aim of the programme

Through this special programme, we aim to increase people’s awareness about rewilding principles, to amplify the rewilding movement both in Italy and abroad by offering opportunities for personal growth and learning-by-doing, and to support the rewilding actions in Central Apennines thanks to the Bear Fund.

Our Rewilding Experiences are not meant to generate profit, but rather to inspire people to participate in a cultural changing process in which the protection of natural resources and ecosystem restoration are at the core of daily life in the local communities.

Our local partners help to make these Experiences possible.

What to expect during the Rewilding Experiences

FIELD ACTIONS

Join some of our rewilding actions in order to experience what rewilding means and directly contribute to wildlife conservation.

IMMERSION INTO THE WILD

Walk into the wild mountains of Central Apennines, observe wildlife and their signs of presence.

MEETING WITH LOCAL PRODUCERS

Meet and exchange with the communities that daily coexist with wildlife.

WORKSHOPS

Learn about wildlife monitoring, key species biology and ecology, coexistence with wildlife, rewilding challenges and strategy.


You’ll be helping to protect some of the most iconic wildlife species of the Central Apennines:

Marsican brown bear
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Red deer (Cervus elaphus) hinds and fawns grazing among wild boar (Sus scropha) on a summer pasture. Central Apennines
Red deer and wild boar
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Eurasian wildcat (Felis sylvestris). Adult male in snow. CAPTIVE
Eurasian wildcat
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Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) adult soaring above distant mountain slope. Central Apennines, Abruzzo, Italy. February 2009.
Griffon vulture
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Why join?

 

PARTICIPATE

directly in wildlife conservation actions and rewilding by joining our team during their work on the ground.

LEARN

about the key concepts of rewilding, wildlife conservation and coexistence from experts and practicioners and the local people who experience it.

SUPPORT

our work economically, as all money raised will support coexistence actions through the Bear Fund, as well as local initiatives acting responsibly in the landscape.

Choose your Rewilding Experience

REWILDING WEEK
5 days | 460€*

Scheduled in 2023:
20-24 September
Max # of participants: 6

*30% tax deductible

Calendar and details here.

 

REWILDING DAY
1 day on a weekend | 35 €

From 9am to 5pm, once a month
from May to October
Check our Instagram or Facebook
accounts to get the last dates

Calendar and all details available here.

 

REWILDING WEEKEND
7 – 8 October 2023 | 130 €

We will meet at 9:30 A.M. in Natural Reserve “Zompo dello Schioppo”

Details here

 

Experiences for organizations

 

REWILDING FOR PARTNERS
2 days

Format & content to be adjusted
according to your expectations

Journey through the ecological corridors

The Rewilding Experiences are set in the ecological corridors of the Central Apennines rewilding landscape. Here, the team’s commitment focuses on nature restoration and more specific, monitoring and conservation of species and habitats. We cooperate with local institutions and communities in order to promote shared initiativesto spread the concept of human-wildlife coexistence. Bringing ecosystems back in balance and making people participate in the benefits derived from this, is one of the objectives we want to share with everyone who believes that this is a priority mission for our wellbeing and quality of life.

The ecological corridors where we work and that connect the main protected areas are defined as “coexistence corridors”. They are crucial areas for the survival and movement of species such as the Marsican brown bear, the Apennine wolf, red deer, roe deer, wild boar, wildcat, griffon vulture, golden eagle and many others.

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Programme details

The Rewilding Experiences are carried out following a calendar that is defined by the Rewilding Apennines team. Every season is characterised by different available activities and priorities.

Each experience is built in order to fit in with the work of the Field Officers, who daily work on the ground on conservation and coexistence measures. The succession of the seasons, the changing elements of the landscape, the alternation of human activities linked to nature determine the priorities in the field, which in turn will be reflected in the initiatives shared during the Rewilding Experiences. Therefore, flexibility and adaptability to different situations are requisites required to the participants.

For example, it might be possible to:

  • participate in wild fauna monitoring with sunrise or sunset observations, or through the usage of camera traps accompanied by a short training course;
  • contribute to environmental restoration by removing small illegal dumps, or abandoned barbed wire in the mountains that today remains an obstacle in the landscape for animal movements (humans included);
  • improve habitat quality by pruning the abandoned fruit orchards that are far from the towns, in order to increase the food availability for the bear and other species;
  • install electric fences and bear-proof metal doors as mitigation measures against bear’s damage to small farms, to support coexistence;
  • meet the human protagonists from the ecological corridors and learn their coexistence stories: residents, small entrepreneurs, students and volunteers;
  • explore the Apennine landscapes with all your senses and explore spectacular places of natural and cultural-historical interest in order to bring back an unforgettable postcard of this experience!

The Field Officers of Rewilding Apennines work daily in the field. Some fieldwork moments:

Rewilding Apennines team driving in 4WD car to monitor wildlife in corridor area between Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park and Majella National Park. Central Apennines, Italy. 2020
In the coexistence corridors it is important to check specific places where the passage of the Marsican brown bear is possible.
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Rewilding Apennines Field Officer, Fabrizio Cordischi. checking Marsican brown bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus) hairs stuck in barbed wire. Central Apennines, Italy. 2020
The animal can leave its signs of presence, like tufts of hair kept by the barbed wire.
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Rewilding Apennines Team leader, Mario Cipollone, setting up a camera trap in wildlife corridor among Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park and Majella National Park. Central Apennines, Italy. 2020
Wildlife monitoring may be done through the regular installation and check of camera traps…
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Rewilding Apennines team monitoring wildlife in corridor area between Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park and Majella National Park. Central Apennines, Italy. 2020
…or direct, with the usage of optics in the field.
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If you are a rewilding supporter and want to have a practical experience that concretely contributes to our rewilding efforts in Central Apennines, sign up via one of the registration forms or contact Enterprise Manager Valerio Reale for more information: valerio.reale@rewilding-apennines.com

 

We need to rewild the world” Sir. David Attenborough, the famous English popularizer and naturalist, has said with strength and convincement, after decades of observing the drift of natural processes all over the world because of human impact, with serious consequences for biodiversity and our species as well.

As Rewilding Apennines we do our part to fulfill this mission and we’re daily committed to defend our natural resources from excessive exploitation and shorten the distance between the man and wild nature. If you want to discover up close how we do this, the Rewilding Weeks are the programme for you!

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