In February 2023, EnviroSustain announced a long-term partnership with Rewilding Europe. This collaboration will see a portion of the EnviroSustain turnover supporting rewilding initiatives for the next ten years, as well as pro bono advice on rewilding-related buildings in the network- such as new offices and rewilding centres. In June, Dr. Birgit Memminger-Rieve, MD at EnviroSustain, and Ingemar Hunold, Partner at EnviroSustain, met with the Rewilding Oder Delta team to provide support and advice for the newly established centre.

On 2 July 2023, the city of Goleniów (Poland) organised a protest against the poisoning of the Ina River that took the form of a ‘black’ kayak trip. Participants – residents of Goleniów and friends of the river, as well as municipal authorities, local politicians and entrepreneurs – met on the stream’s banks to express their indignation at the ecological disasters repeated over the years in the catchment area of this beautiful river.

In the light of the upcoming voting for the new Nature Restoration Law, Rewilding Oder Delta hosted a visit of members of the European Parliament Hannah Neumann and Jutta Paulus to present challenges and best practices in the field of ecosystem restoration.

On June 16th, 2023, Rewilding Oder Delta inaugurated the new rewilding centre in Glashütte, in the municipality of Rothenklempenow. This highly anticipated event results from the joint Polish and German cooperation aiming to foster a strong bond between nature, local communities, and visitors alike.

The River University is an international and interdisciplinary course for participants from the Baltic Sea Region and Europe. Its objective is to disseminate knowledge about river ecosystems through an open-access platform, presenting information in comprehensible scientific format. The upcoming 4th edition of the event is scheduled to take place in Germany from July 31 to August 4, 2023, with a primary focus on water pollution and risk management.

Under the motto “Natural treasures between Pasewalk and Szczecin,” we are looking for the most beautiful photos of the Oder Delta from May 1st to May 31st.

On April 22, 2023, the Polish NGO “Friends of the Ina and Gowienica Rivers” initiated a successful action to collect trash on the banks of the Ina River. This was the second time that a trash collection action was held on the riverbanks, which was coordinated and carried out by the Rewilding Oder Delta team. Notably, this year’s riverbank cleaning was scheduled to coincide with a significant event: Earth Day 2023. On this date, public actions are held worldwide to draw attention to the state of the environment and our landscapes.

For many years, the partner organisation Society of Friends of the Ina and Gowienica Rivers (TPRIiG) has been organising symbolic river clean-up events in the Oder Delta. Thanks to strong community involvement and support from other regional organisations and institutions, hundreds of bags of rubbish, which had lain on the banks and in the riverbeds, were collected.

Two juvenile Eurasian lynx – a one year-old female and a one-year old male – have been released into a natural forest area in Western Pomerania, north-western Poland, as part of a long-term reintroduction initiative. In February, a collaboration between the West Pomeranian Nature Society (ZTP) and Rewilding Oder Delta (ROD) saw three animals transported from a German animal park near Hamburg to Dzika Zagroda enclosure facility near Mirosławiec in Poland.

Nature and wildlife are the subject of many interests, from the state nature conservation and forestry administration to landowners and land users such as farmers and hunters, to conservation organisations and local people who love and want to preserve their environs. To find a consensus between the different concerns and to protect landscapes and wildlife together, cooperation between all stakeholders is crucial.