World Rewilding Day in Lund: Rewilding Seminar and Short-movie Screening

On March 20th the event “Rewilding Seminar and Short-movie Screening” took place at Lund University, celebrating World Rewilding Day.  Implemented in 2021by Global Rewilding Alliance, this international celebration aims to raise awareness of rewilding and the need for nature recovery around the globe. 

The event was organized by Rewilding Europe, in collaboration with the BECC (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a changing Landscape), within the Centre for Environmental and Climate Science. Considering the great number of participants, it is easy to say that this topic is of great interest, especially for students.  

The event was divided into several parts, led by speakers from different fields and backgrounds, giving various perspectives of rewilding. It started with a presentation on rewilding by Giulia Testa, Upscaling Manager at Rewilding Europe. She explained what rewilding is, why it is important, and how it can be done. This presentation was a great way to start the event, giving a lot of useful information for those who were discovering rewilding as well as for people who already knew about the concept. Then came the screening of the short documentary “A New Path for the Velebit Mountains”, co-produced by the Rewilding Europe organization. It showed a concrete action of rewilding that was implemented by the organization in Croatia and was a great way to see how Rewilding Europe imagine and manage its initiatives, working with the local communities. After a short break, Philip Kjellstrom, School Educator at Rewilding Sweden and Student, held a presentation of the initiative Framtidens Skogar (Forests of the Future). Focusing on Swedish forests, Philips’s presentation gave a more local perspective to the possibility of rewilding. To end the presentations, Lydwin Wagenaar, doctoral student in Biodiversity and Conservation Science and BECC-member, presented the wildE-project, giving a more scientific view of rewilding. And finally, closing the event, a question-and-answer time led to interesting interventions, revealing the public ecological preoccupations, interest and curiosity about rewilding, showing how valuable and inspirational this event was. 

If you are interested in this rewilding or in the organizations/initiatives mentioned in the article, here are some useful links: 

BECC Policy Brief about Rewilding: Restoring wilder landscapes for people and biodiversity 

Llewellyne Delelis is a master’s degree student in international cooperation from Lille University (France), working as an intern at the External Service of Lund University. She is focusing on sustainable mobility and sustainable internationalisation within the university area.

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