Rewilding Apennines offers the opportunity to take part in the rewilding movement through a program of practical experiences to personally contribute to the nature conservation in the Central Apennines.

What are the Rewilding Experiences

What is the best way to discover rewilding if not to live it concretely, with a series of experiences in the field, specially designed to bring people to the side of the wild nature.

The Rewilding Experiences are initiatives to explore the Central Apennines rewilding area, to meet and exchange with the communities that live in the ecological corridors and that daily deal with the coexistence with wildlife, to help practically in the actions of conservation and environment restoration alongside the team of Rewilding Apennines, and to support the economy of small and fascinating Apennine villages.

Through this special program, the Rewilding Apennines objectives are to increase the people’s awareness about the rewilding principles, to amplify the rewilding movement both in Italy and abroad by offering opportunities of personal growth and learning by doing, and to support the conservation actions in Central Apennines thanks to the Bear Fund tool. The Rewilding Experiences are not meant to generate profits or tourism, rather they aspire to stimulate people to participate to a cultural changing process in which the protection of natural resources and the ecosystems’ restoration are at the core of the daily life of places and communities.

The initiative is in partnership with local partners.

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.

Journey through the ecological corridors to contribute to the nature conservation

The Rewilding Experiences are set in the ecological corridors of the Central Apennines rewilding landscape, where the team’s commitment is concretized through projects of monitoring and conservation of species and habitat, especially for the most endangered ones, and of environmental restoration in the cases where there are situations compromised by the human impact. The work is always carried out in close collaboration with local institutions and communities in order to promote shared initiatives with the residents and to spread as much as possible the culture of man-wildlife coexistence. Bringing the ecosystems back in balance and making people participate at the benefits derived from this constant commitment is one of the objectives that Rewilding Apennines wants to share with whom think that this is a priority mission for the wellbeing and the quality of our lives.

In view of this, the ecological corridors where Rewilding Apennines works and that connect the main protected areas are defined “coexistence corridors”. They are crucial areas for the survival and spread of species such the Marsican brown bear, the Apennine wolf, the red deer, the roe deer, the wild boar, the wild cat, the Griffon vulture, the Golden eagle and many others.

Some of the most iconic wildlife species of the Central Apennines. From the left to the right: Marsican brown bear, red deer and wild boars, wild cat, Griffon vulture. Ph. Bruno D’Amicis.

The wildlife monitoring can be direct, with the usage of optics, and indirect, with the regular installation and check of camera traps. Ph. Bruno D’Amicis.

Every season is characterized by different activities and priorities that are included in the Rewilding Experiences.

The program details

The Rewilding Experiences are carrying out following a calendar that is defined by the Rewilding Apennines team.

Each experience is built in order to go with the work of the Field Officers, who daily works on the ground to the conservation and coexistence projects. The succession of the seasons, the changing elements of the landscape, the alternation of human activities linked to nature determine the priorities and programs 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 will be possible to participate at the wild fauna monitoring with sunrise or sunset observations, or through the usage of camera traps accompanied by a short training course; to contribute to environmental restoration by removing small illegal dumps, or barbed wire abandoned in the mountains since decades that today constitutes a detractor for landscape and animal movements (humans included); to 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; to install electric fences and bear-proof metal doors as prevention tools of bear’s damage to small farms in the name of conflicts mitigation; to meet closely the human protagonists of the ecological corridors and know their coexistence stories: residents, small entrepreneurs, students and volunteers; to explore the Apennine landscapes with all the senses and to know spectacular places of natural and cultural-historical interests in order to bring back an unforgettable postcard of this experience!

The Field Officers of Rewilding Apennines work daily in the field. In the coexistence corridors it is important to check specific places where the passage of the Marsican brown bear is possible. The animal can leave its signs of presence, like tufts of hair kept by the barbed wire. Ph. Bruno D’Amicis.

Why join?

• PARTICIPATE
  concretely to wildlife conservation by joining our field actions.
• LEARN
  some of the key concepts of wildlife conservation, coexistence and rewilding.
• SUPPORT
  economically our work, as all the money raised will support coexistence actions through the Bear Fund, as well as local initiatives acting with care on the territory.

 

If you are a rewilding supporter, if you want to have a practical experience that concretely contributes to the Rewilding Apennines initiatives in Central Apennines, please contact the Enterprise Manager Valerio Reale to have more information: valerio.reale@rewilding-apennines.com