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CONTENT

Lead Article

Economic lookahead: As we ring in 2024, can the US economy continue to avoid a recession?
by D. Brian Blank, Associate Professor of Finance, Mississippi State University and Brandy Hadley is an Associate Professor of Finance and the David A. Thompson Distinguished Scholar of Applied Investments at Appalachian State University

Article 01

The Economy of Tomorrow | AI Revolution | Megacities | Documentary
by Moconomy

The Future Now Show

Futurenomics
with Bronwyn Williams & Katie Schultz

Article 02

Four good news climate stories from 2023
by Will de Freitas, The Conversation

News about the Future

> GOFAR : Global Organization For Agricultural Robotics
> Riding sound waves in the brain

Article 03

4 Hovering Cars 2024-28 | Magnetic Revolution
by Future Lab

Recommended Book

Vista: Life and getting where you want to be
by Elisabet Sahtouris, PhD

Article 04

Designed to move
by TenFold Engineering

Climate Change Success Story

Rewilding

Resources
Rewilding Europe
Rewilding in the Danube Delta
Rewilding A Nation - Britain
Dixie Creek - Nevada/USA
South Africa
Queensland, Australia
Rewilding urban farm - Abandoned Japan
The Extreme Rewilding of Chernobyl
UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

Futurist Portrait

David N. Bengston
Environmental Futurist

Tags:
Africa, Agriculture, ARCHITECTURE, Artificial Intelligence,
Australia, Brain, Britain, Chernobyl, Climate Change, Danube,
Electric cars, Europe, Forest, Futurenomics, Global Economy,
Japan, Magnetic Cars, Megacities, Nature, Nevada, Rewilding,
Robotics, South Africa, TECHNOLOGY, the Netherlands,
Ultrasound, UN, Wildlife

Welcome




Felix B Bopp

Website statistics for
clubofamsterdam.com
February 2024:

2024
visits	68,000
visitors	29,000
2023
visits	766,000
visitors	172,000

Quotes

David N. Bengston: "There is substantial evidence that we are currently in a period of rapid and significant change in forest values. Some have charged that managing forests in ways that are responsive to diverse and changing forest values is the main challenge faced by public forest managers. To tackle this challenge, we need to address the following questions:
(1) What is the nature of forest values? That is, can all forest values be reduced to a single dimension, as assumed in utilitarian-based traditional forestry and economics, or are these values multidimensional and incommensurate?
(2) What specific values are involved?
(3) What is the structure of forest values? That is, how are they related to each other in value systems?
(4) How and why have forest values changed over time? and
(5) What do changing forest values imply for ecosystem management approaches?"

Bronwyn Williams: "Join me on my mission to understand the world and create a better future for all of us who live in it."

Elisabet Sahtouris: "The Globalization of humanity is a natural, biological, evolutionary process. Yet we face an enormous crisis because the most central and important aspect of globalization - its economy - is currently being organized in a manner that so gravely violates the fundamental principles by which healthy living systems are organized that it threatens the demise of our whole civilization."

Lead Article:

Economic lookahead: As we ring in 2024, can the US economy continue to avoid a recession?
by D. Brian Blank, Associate Professor of Finance, Mississippi State University and Brandy Hadley is an Associate Professor of Finance and the David A. Thompson Distinguished Scholar of Applied Investments at Appalachian State University

 

D. Brian Blank

 

Brandy Hadley

 

D. Brian Blank, Mississippi State University, and Brandy Hadley, Appalachian State University

With economic forecasters rewriting their 2024 outlooks following recent moves from the Federal Reserve, The Conversation turned to two financial economists to share their thoughts on the upcoming year.

D. Brian Blank and Brandy Hadley are professors who study finance, firm financial decisions and the economy. They explain what they're watching in 2024.

1. At this time last year, many experts saw a downturn on the horizon. Will that long-predicted recession finally come to pass in 2024?

The good news is, probably not.

The U.S. economy is not in a recession and will likely continue growing. Over the past year, gross domestic product has outpaced expectations, inflation is trending downward and employment remains robust. Real wages have increased, as has consumer spending. Additionally, housing demand is strong and financial markets are at all-time highs. While no one should argue that there will never be another recession, 2024 seems to be an unlikely time for one - unless there's some unexpected spark like, for example, a new global pandemic.

To be fair, optimism leads to risk-taking, which can always contribute to the next downturn. And the U.S. economy faces plenty of challenges, including already elevated debt costs, a possible government shutdown, rising consumer debt and continued distress in commercial real estate, which could result in rolling industry downturns. Other headwinds include the national debt, other nations' weaker economies and ongoing global conflict and trade tensions.

While 2023 has seemed to many people like a "soft landing" - that elusive achievement in which policymakers reduce inflation without sparking a downturn - prior recessions have followed periods where people thought they had been avoided. That may be why bankers, finance leaders and economists are still noting the risks of interest rates remaining high.

Still, the fundamentals are strong and may be on the rise, if you believe chief financial officers. Plus, despite dysfunction in Washington, recent laws and policies like the CHIPS and Science Act, the bipartisan infrastructure deal, the AI Bill of Rights and the Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Use of Artificial Intelligence could further boost economic growth by stimulating job creation and enhancing competitiveness. Notably, public and private manufacturing and industrial investment are at unprecedented levels, and technology is quickly advancing, further contributing to the positive economic outlook, not to mention strong consumer balance sheets.

2. Then what about a 'vibecession'? Are we in one now, and why does it matter for 2024?

When you look at the economic pessimism revealed in polls and on social media, a fascinating paradox emerges - despite the collective bad vibes, the majority of Americans say their personal economic situations are basically fine.

The writer Kyla Scanlon has called this state of affairs a "vibecession": While the economy continues to grow, the vibes are just off. The fact that consumer spending continues to see sustained growth, despite the gloomy economic outlook, underscores a curious split between sentiment and economic activity.

3. What if individual income and spending keep rising? Wouldn't that be enough to end the vibecession?

In short: Not necessarily.

While inflation has been high over the past couple of years - reaching a peak of 9.1% in June 2022 before falling to 3.1% recently - most Americans have not seen their income rise as fast as inflation since 2021. As a result, many are frustrated that they can't afford what they could in 2020. Is reminiscing like prior generations about how Coca-Cola used to cost a nickel killing the vibes? If inflation rises faster than wages in 2024, the vibes may suffer.

What's more, other positive economic developments have seemed to barely affect the vibes. Just about everyone who wants a job has one, which is a crucial factor in maintaining consumer confidence and spending habits.

To be sure, gas prices also play an outsized role in shaping sentiment, and as they unexpectedly fell in December, sentiment improved. This highlights the impact of energy costs on the public's mood and suggests that fluctuations in gas prices can quickly influence overall economic sentiment.

However, we suspect that consumers will keep doing what they're doing - spending money and feeling bad about the economy - until some shock forces them out of it. This weird contradiction between perceived gloom and personal financial well-being highlights the complex interplay of psychological factors and material realities that shapes the overall economic narrative.

4. Could the vibecession become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Consumers say they feel bad, but they're continuing to spend more than expected, which has been the case for more than a year now. These facts seem at odds with each other, and some experts worry the pessimism itself could hurt the economy. This is because people spend less when they're concerned about the future.

However, this has been the case for months - so it's unclear why it should change now.

While understanding that consumer sentiment is complex, we think it makes more sense to focus on what people do, not what they say. And people are behaving in a way that's consistent with a strong economy due to rising real income, not to mention a robust labor market.

And overall, if you tell people for the better part of two years that a recession is imminent, you shouldn't be shocked that they're gloomy. If the consensus is wrong, it should surprise no one when sentiment diverges from economic data - especially with politicians blaming each other for a weaker economy.

5. What else are you watching for in 2024?

Coming off the December Federal Reserve meeting, many forecasters have rewritten their 2024 outlooks with the expectation that the Fed will lower rates more than they anticipated before Chair Jerome Powell gave an optimistic press conference. Though many expected Powell to minimize discussions about lowering rates, meeting responses were strong, deeming inflation defeated and consensus expectations forecasting a benchmark federal funds rate below 4% by year end to relax financial conditions.

While investors appear to have overreacted - again - additional slowing in inflation and economic growth is likely as the economy continues to normalize post-pandemic. The most likely outcome for 2024 is that the Federal Open Market Committee lowers rates following more downward revisions to inflation data beginning as early as March until rates end the year just below the Fed's 4.5% federal funds rate projection. However, the Fed isn't waiting for inflation to reach its 2% target before lowering rates, which means that rapidly falling inflation could make more rate cuts possible.

Economic growth is likely to remain strong in 2024, and inflation will likely slow, albeit at a more muted rate. And with mortgage rates falling below 7% now, housing starts and mortgage originations are rising. Now, housing affordability may improve in the coming year, albeit from the worst level in decades.

While 2024 is likely to involve debates in other areas, hopefully fewer of these economic conversations will happen in 2024 than in 2023. And if we are lucky, markets will rise at least as quickly, though we should remember that almost everyone was wrong last year - and if there's one prediction we can make with confidence, it's that at least some of today's forecasts will look pretty silly in retrospect.

D. Brian Blank, Associate Professor of Finance, Mississippi State University, and Brandy Hadley, Associate Professor of Finance and the David A. Thompson Distinguished Scholar of Applied Investments, Appalachian State University

 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

CONTENT

Article 01

The Economy of Tomorrow | AI Revolution | Megacities | Documentary
by Moconomy

The Economy of Tomorrow - The future is uncertain and full of challenges. How do we rescue our cities and tackle inequalities? How do we deal with an aging future and bridging the gender gap? It's time for some forward thinking.

 

 

 

 

CONTENT

The Future Now Show

Futurenomics
with Bronwyn Williams & Katie Schultz

 

Bronwyn discusses the unsustainable state of the global economy, emphasizing the role of human behavior and power dynamics. She also touches on the potential impact of emerging technologies on the economy. Bronwyn highlightes the issue of "bullshit jobs" and the effects of technology on the workforce. Finally, Bronwyn discusses the potential impact of digital currencies and blockchain technology on global finance. - AI summary by Zoom

 

 

 

 

 

Moderator

 

Credits

Bronwyn Williams
Futurist, Economist and Business Trends Analyst
South Africa

Futures Fellow
UNDP
www.undp.org

Partner: Director of Foresight
Flux Trends
fluxtrends.com

Book
The Future Starts Now
Expert Insights Into the Future of Business, Technology and Society
thefuturestartsnowbook.com

 

Moderator

Katie Schultz (Miss Metaverse™)
Futurist and Content Creator
Bangkok, Thailand & Cary, North Carolina, USA
missmetaverse.io
futuristmm.com



Felix B Bopp
Producer, The Future Now Show
clubofamsterdam.com


The Future Now Show
clubofamsterdam.com/the-future-now-show


You can find The Future Now Show also atLinkedIn: The Future Now Show Group
YouTube: The Future Now Show Channel

 

CONTENT

Article 02

Four good news climate stories from 2023
by Will de Freitas, The Conversation

 

 

Will de Freitas

 

We don't want to give you the wrong idea: things are bad. Antarctic ice sheets are melting, the fossil fuel lobby was everywhere at the COP talks, and even solutions like electric cars have their problems. And that just covers the past few weeks of this newsletter.

But to end 2023 we'd like to focus on a few of the more optimistic stories we have run over the past year.

 

1. We have skyscraper-sized wind turbines now

Back in January, we asked Simon Hogg, executive director of Durham Energy Institute, about huge new wind turbines being built in the North Sea.

These turbines, he wrote, "stand more than a quarter of a kilometre high from the surface of the sea to the highest point of the blade tip".

"If you placed one in London, it would be the third-tallest structure in the city, taller than One Canada Square in Canary Wharf and just 50 metres shorter than the Shard. Each of its three blades would be longer than Big Ben's clock tower is tall."

The sheer size has some benefits: "A bigger blade extracts energy from the wind over a greater area as it rotates, which generates more electricity." Each rotation can power an average home for two days.

In theory, Hogg notes, turbines could keep getting bigger and bigger. They will soon run into some practical problems though, as huge blades are harder to maintain and we are running out of ports and ships big enough for them.

Nonetheless, ever bigger wind turbines have been a key reason why Britain has managed to shift much of its electricity generation from fossil fuels to renewables over the past decade.

2. Solar power keeps getting cheaper and more adaptable

Britain is, of course, more windy than sunny. But in much of the world, solar power is the real game changer.

Yet one issue with solar is that we may run out of material needed to produce silicon cells - the main sort of solar panels you see in solar farms or on rooftops. Therefore many academics are looking for alternatives.

One of these academics is David Benyon of Swansea University. In March he wrote about his new research, which involved developing "the world's first rollable and fully printable solar cell made from perovskite, a material that is much less expensive to produce than silicon." The technology is still in its early stages and needs to become more efficient but, he writes, "this points to the possibility of making cheaper solar cells on a much greater scale than ever before".

Perhaps perovskite will become the new silicon, or maybe some other technology will dominate in future, but what's clear is that solar power is fast becoming even cheaper and more accessible. The challenge for perovskite researchers, Benyon says, is to focus on "converting what's happening in the labs into real-world devices".

3. On the menu: mammoth meatball

Scientists recently created a meatball made of the flesh of extinct woolly mammoth. This in itself isn't the good news: no one is proposing we fix climate change with prehistoric food.

But it's proof that cellular agriculture, sometimes called "lab-grown meat", can work. As Silvia Malagoli at Strathclyde University writes: "Lab-grown meat has the potential to offer a much more sustainable food source than traditional animal farming that could also help reduce the spread of disease."

This could unlock huge amounts of land for rewilding or recreation. "If scaled up, lab-grown meat would use substantially less land and water. Research finds that around 99% less land is required to produce 1kg of lab-grown meat than would have to be used by European farms to produce the same amount."

Malagoli also points out that lab-grown meat wouldn't require the same volume of antibiotics that animal farmers use to prevent the spread of disease: "Their overuse is contributing to a rise of antibiotic resistance. The United Nations estimates that, by 2050, antibiotic resistance will lead to more deaths than cancer worldwide."

4. Climate change tipping points can be a good thing too

You've probably heard about the doomsday scenario of a part of the climate system - an ice sheet, perhaps, or a rainforest - suddenly passing a "tipping point" beyond which it is impossible to stop it changing into something else (perhaps barren rock or dried out savanna, respectively). The Conversation has covered these scenarios extensively over the years, most recently in a piece by authors of the major new tipping points report.

But that same report also contained some positives. Climate-related technologies or social and political behaviour can also pass similar tipping points, beyond which something better becomes inevitable. Steven Smith at the University of Sussex and his colleagues wrote about these sorts of "positive" tipping points which they say are "already happening, in areas ranging from renewable energy and electric vehicles, to social movements and plant-based diets".

Their report sets out "ways to intervene in these systems to enable positive tipping points to be triggered - for example by making the desired change the cheapest, most convenient or morally acceptable option".

They say that passing one tipping point can even set off a domino effect:

"For example, as we cross the tipping point that sees electric vehicles become the dominant form of road transport, battery technology will continue to get better and cheaper."

"This could trigger another positive tipping point in the use of batteries for storing renewable energy, reinforcing another in the use of heat pumps in our homes, and so on. And there are what we call 'super-leverage points'- places where we can deliberately intervene with information campaigns, mandates and incentives to create widespread change across sectors."

Good news then for anyone who feels like we've been getting nowhere with climate action despite decades of effort. Things might suddenly look very different once past a certain point. As the saying almost goes, mammoth burgers are impossible until they are inevitable.

Will de Freitas, Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation

 

 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

CONTENT

News about the Future

> GOFAR : Global Organization For Agricultural Robotics
> Riding sound waves in the brain

GOFAR : Global Organization For Agricultural Robotics

The GOFAR non-profit organization undertakes to promote and develop the agricultural robotics sector at international level. Like Robagri, whose objective is to facilitate the technical development of agricultural robots, GOFAR meets the increasing need for visibility and networking of the agricultural robotics sector.

GOFAR therefore aims to organize the meeting between the relevant stakeholders, and to support them by taking an active part in the development of the agricultural robotics market hence implementing a promotional campaign of international scale (organization of events, production of actions of communication and participation of trade fairs in France and abroad).

The GOFAR association focuses its activity on four main work streams:

• Organizing annually the International Forum of Agricultural Robotics (FIRA), both Online and in-person in Toulouse (France);
• Setting up international collaborations;
• Development of an information platform around the Agricultural Robotics sector – www.agricultural-robotics.com;
• Creation and animation of a network of leading international experts in agricultural robotics.

 

 

Riding sound waves in the brain

ETH Zurich researchers have shown for the first time that microvehicles can be steered through blood vessels in the brains of mice using ultrasound. They hope that this will eventually lead to treatments capable of delivering drugs with pinpoint precision.

Researchers at ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich and the University Hospital Zurich have now managed for the first time to guide microvehicles through the blood vessels in the brain of an animal using ultrasound.

• A technology developed at ETH Zurich over the past few years for controlling microvehicles using ultrasound also works in the brain, as researchers have now been able to show.
  
  
• These microvehicles are gas bubbles, which are harmless and dissolve once their job is done.
  
  
• In the future, these microvehicles could be equipped with medications and deliver them to specific points in the brain. This may increase the efficacy of the drugs and reduce their side effects.
  

CONTENT

Article 03

4 Hovering Cars 2024-28 | Magnetic Revolution
by Future Lab

It's time to go from Electric cars to Magnetic cars so they flow on the roads without the latter’s resistance.
The project is inspired by the maglev or magnetic levitation trains, which use superconducting electromagnets for propulsion.

But since the construction of such a technology is very expensive, Scientists from China embed regular rubber wheels of a car with ring-shaped permanent magnets to flow on a simple non-magnetic aluminum conductor plate, paved on the surface of ordinary roads as a special maglev lane. The rest in the video, where you will find out 4 Amazing New Technology that will make cars hover above the road and fly in the air.

 

 

 

 

CONTENT

Recommended Book

Vista: Life and getting where you want to be
by Elisabet Sahtouris, PhD

 

 

Synopsis

Ideas of reinventing the world are seen as less realistic than ideas of reinventing computers --
especially if you talk seriously about "liberty and justice for all" the world’s people or world
peace. The argument repeated like a mantra and thus revealing a powerful cultural belief is,
"You cannot change human nature."

The basic model -- the ‘engineering diagram’ or flow chart -- of How Things Are in our
world has pretty much been created by Western science. It consists of a non-living universe
in which blind forces of Nature, expressed as the Laws of Physics and Darwinian evolution,
made us what we are. Human Nature is what it is, according to this scheme of things, and no
amount of dreaming about liberty, justice and peace for all will change our competitive
nature in the natural struggle for survival.

But this book will show you a new view of Nature as conscious and creative intelligence,
with biological evolution typically occurring as rapid response to crisis, rather than as
mechanical selection within a slow stream of accidental mutations. This new understanding
is part of an integral new paradigm emerging in all fields of science. Its most fundamental
feature is the recognition that our human minds reflect the inherent intelligence of Nature
and are the creative source of our evolving lives as individuals and as a human society, for
better or for worse.

A little reflection makes it obvious that we have thought up everything about our world
mentally and emotionally before we could make it all happen, from creating religions or
science, from designing constitutions or fashions to doing economics and education, building
houses, communities and computers, making wars, raising families and so on. Yet we
haven’t really gotten it deeply that we create our own reality through our minds, spirits and
hearts, because the old scientific worldview is still so strongly clouding that truth by teaching
us that the material world’s reality is independent of us -- that its "objective" reality has
nothing to do with how we think about it "subjectively."

That view is now crumbling under evidence produced by science itself that consciousness is
not a late emerging property of evolution but the very source of the entire material world of
Nature, including humanity. As that discovery spreads through society at large, along with its
implications that we can dream and create the world any way we desire, we need to be well
prepared for conscious creation of the reality we truly want.

While people have always created reality out of their beliefs, until now a handful of
powerful people dictated the beliefs of each human culture. The glory of our own time is that
the news is finally out that each and every one of us has the authority, even the mandate, to
choose the beliefs by which we live and create our individual and communal lives.

To create the human future well we need good Vistas -- consciously created belief systems
comprised of worldviews and the values for negotiating them courageously and lovingly.
The word VISTA being composed of VITA and VISA, a Vista is the best possible
understanding of life and getting where we want to be!

 

 

Elisabet: "I finally finished my final book and am giving away this eBook (digital) version,
so feel free to pass it on as you like."

Vista - Final copy.pdf

Shared with Dropbox

 

 

Elisabet Sahtouris, PhD
EVOLUTION BIOLOGIST & FUTURIST

Internationally known as a dynamic speaker, Dr. Sahtouris is an evolution biologist, futurist, professor, author and consultant on Living Systems Design. She shows the relevance of biological systems to organizational design in business, government and globalisation. She is a Fellow of the World Business Academy, an advisor to EthicalMarkets.com and the Masters in Business program at Schumacher College, also affiliated with the Bainbridge Graduate Institute's MBA program for sustainable business.

Dr. Sahtouris has convened two International Symposia on the Foundations of Science and written about integral cosmologies. Her books include A Walk Through TIme: from Stardust to Us, Biology Revisioned, co-authored with Willis Harman, and EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution.
www.sahtouris.com

CONTENT

Article 04

Designed to move
by TenFold Engineering

 

TenFold Engineering

"We believe that no matter what you're looking to accomplish - having a space that communicates the brand or organization's ethos is a central part to success. So whether you are promoting your clothing company at a music festival, responding to a natural disaster or providing office space during a renovation, the people who utilize the space will feel the positive effects.

Our goal is to provide a dynamic and high end space for brands, individuals and organizations, regardless of location. By designing around a universally recognized shipping standard we believe that our units can be a global solution to many different challenges - from high quality affordable housing, to mobile stores and workshops."

 

TEN FOLD ENGINEERING
by Johann Rosario

 

TenFold Engineering's Unfolding Building Prototype

 

CONTENT

Climate Change Success Story

Rewilding

 

 

Photo by Lauri Poldre

Rewilding is a progressive approach to conservation. It's about letting nature take care of itself, enabling natural processes to shape land and sea, repair damaged ecosystems and restore degraded landscapes.

 

Resources

Rewilding Glossary by Rewilding Britain

Rewilding Players
by Rewilding Earth
In this Organizational Directory we provide links to a wide variety of groups (local, regional, national and international) working on various aspects of rewilding and continental-scale conservation.

The principles of rewilding
by Rewilding Europe

Rewilding Principles
by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Our resources share the knowledge gathered by IUCN’s unique global community of 18,000+ experts. They include databases, tools, standards, guidelines and policy recommendations. We author hundreds of books, assessments, reports, briefs and research papers every year.
IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology

Impact of rewilding on ecosystem resilience
by Rewilding Academy

Scientific Evidence
by The Global Rewliding Alliance
The Global Rewilding Alliance works to put rewilding at the centre of environmental talks and actions. This is why we are commissioning, convening, and publishing top-class science on the importance of rewilding.
The Global Rewilding Alliance is a global network of organisations. Our vision is a world where restored wild lands and seas provide a secure future for people, nature and the planet. The global community has pledged to protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and seas by 2030 – also known as 30 by 30. To achieve this goal, we need to put nature in the driver’s seat.

 

 

 

 

Rewilding Europe

“Rewilding breathes life back into our landscapes.
It helps us reconnect with the wonders of Europe’s spectacular wild nature.
It is our best hope for a future where people and nature not only co-exist, but flourish.”

Frans Schepers, Executive Director of Rewilding Europe

European bison
Romania

Rewilding Europe aims to rewild at least one million hectares of land/water, creating ten magnificent wildlife and wild areas of international quality, that will work as example of a new competitive, sustainable rural economy. They will serve as inspirational role models for what can be achieved elsewhere.

What we're doing
Rewilding Europe operates a number of interconnected initiatives to help make Europe a wilder place:

Pioneering approach
We offer a new and pioneering approach to nature recovery. With natural processes playing a vital role shaping landscapes, nature is fully capable of taking care of itself.

Rewilding landscapes
We are working to rewild 15 landscapes across Europe. These act as practical demonstrations of rewilding principles, models and tools. By showing what rewilding can achieve, these new wilder landscapes inspire others to engage in rewilding.

Climate positive
Rewilding can play a game-changing role in helping us to mitigate the scale and impact of climate change, while simultaneously enhancing biodiversity. As a nature-based solution, rewilding is practical, inspirational, cost-effective and available now.

European Rewilding Network
A platform which allows rewilding initiatives across Europe to exchange insight and information, and share practical experiences in rewilding.

Rewilding Europe Capital
Europe’s first rewilding enterprise funding facility provides financial loans to businesses which support rewilding in Europe and generate income and jobs based on wild values.

European Wildlife Comeback Fund
A proactive tool aiming to support wildlife comeback in Europe by providing immediate funding for reintroductions and population reinforcements that are ready to be executed.

Creating a policy environment
Together with a range of policy and scientific experts, we are working to promote a positive policy environment for rewilding, both at EU and national level.

 

History

Rewilding Europe was formally established on 28 June 2011 as an independent, non-for-profit foundation (ANBI status) registered in the Netherlands. The four co-founders of Rewilding Europe are Frans Schepers, Staffan Widstrand, Neil Birnie and Wouter Helmer. Rewilding Europe currently incorporates two limited liability companies, the Rewilding European Capital B.V. and the Rewilding Europe B.V..

As an independent organisation, Rewilding Europe has established itself as a pan-European initiative, operating at the frontline of rewilding at a European scale. We work together with numerous partners, both at a European, national and local level. A Supervisory Board, with now six members from six different countries, was established in September 2012.

After more than ten years of committed work, Rewilding Europe is now well underway and has made considerable progress, as can be seen in our Annual Reviews and regular reports. The rewilding process in Europe has achieved significant momentum. As it takes this new conservation movement forward across the continent, Rewilding Europe will continue to act as a pioneer and frontrunner.

By end-2022, Rewilding Europe is working in ten large rewilding landscapes across Europe, with staff- and board members, ambassadors and volunteers from 18 European countries. Our lean-and-mean central team currently represents 7 lead positions with some 25 staff in total. Rewilding Europe is based in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Beaver (Castor fiber) in the Peene valley, Peene river, Anklam, Germany

 

Rewilding is a progressive approach to conservation. It’s about letting nature take care of itself, enabling natural processes to shape land and sea, repair damaged ecosystems and restore degraded landscapes. Through rewilding, wildlife’s natural rhythms create wilder, more biodiverse habitats.

Rewilding is about:
Nature’s own ways

Nature knows best when it comes to survival and self-governance.

We can give it a helping hand by creating the right conditions – by removing dykes and dams to free up rivers, by reducing active management of wildlife populations, by allowing natural forest regeneration, and by reintroducing species that have disappeared as a result of man’s actions.

Then we should step back and let nature manage itself.

Bringing back wildlife
European wildlife species have strongly declined, even in our wildest areas. Some of them have even gone extinct, while they play a critically important ecological role. Rewilding works to restore lost species guilds by giving them space to thrive, by population enhancement, and by reintroducing key native species.

Ensuring wellbeing
When nature is healthy, we are healthier too. We rely on the natural world for water, food and air. There is a growing realisation that connecting with wild nature makes us feel good and keeps us mentally and physically well.

Rewilding is about reconnecting a modern society – both rural and urban – with wilder nature. We invite people to experience and live in these new, rewilded landscapes.

Delivering for the future
There is no defined end point for rewilding. The aim is to support nature-driven processes, which in turn will bring about wilder nature. This takes time and space. Rewilding is about moving up a scale of wildness, where every step moving up this scale is seen as progress.

If we create and protect areas where rewilding can take place, both people and wildlife will benefit in the long term.

“Rewilding is about trusting the forces of nature to restore land and sea.” - Raquel Filgueiras, Head of Rewilding

Rewilding Europe 2023 Highlights | End of Year Recap | Another Wild Year!
by Rewilding Europe

 

Rewilding in the Danube Delta

As part of Rewilding Europe, we want to make Europe a wilder place, with more space for wild nature, wildlife and natural processes. In bringing back the variety of life, we will continue to explore new ways for people to enjoy and earn a fair living from the wild.

The Danube Delta is one of Europe's largest and most important wetlands. Efforts by the Rewilding Ukraine team to restore natural water flow here are great news for Dalmatian pelicans and great news for local communities. Ongoing lake restoration efforts benefit pelicans and people in the Danube Delta.

Where the mighty Danube river meets the Black Sea, it has created a massive delta land, Europe’s largest wetland area. It is still surprisingly wild and relatively undestroyed.

The 580,000 hectare delta is home to massive amounts of waterbirds of all kinds, most notably pelicans of two species, herons, storks, cormorants and terns. It is a favourite staging area for passage migrants and also wintering grounds for masses of migrating waterbirds from the steppes, the boreal forests and the tundras further north.

Here also lie some of Europe’s very few remaining grazed mosaic forest landscapes, the beautiful woodlands of Letea and Caraorman. Beavers are slowly making their return into the area, the area holds healthy populations of golden jackal while white-tailed eagles show a remarkable comeback.

The massive productivity of the many water habitats here has led to the delta harbouring the largest number of fish species anywhere in Europe. Flagship species of which are the four species of sturgeon, which once used to wander the entire length of the Danube river all the way up into Germany. The area has unprecedented potential for wetland restoration and rewilding, in particular the former polders and lakes can be reflooded and reconnected with the Danube river dynamics.

The Danube Delta, the largest river delta wetland in Europe, has become one of the finest, wildest, best-protected and most famous wildlife areas of the whole continent. The area provides new sources of income and pride for the people who live here and in the surrounding Romanian, Ukrainian and Moldavian regions. Also, the Danube Delta inspires people in other natural areas to approach their problems and opportunities also using rewilding as a tool.

The Danube Delta ecosystem has undergone a large scale restoration both on the Ukrianian, Romanian and Moldovian side, mainly through reconnecting large lakes systems with the Danube river dynamics. The initiative builds on past restoration and conservation initiatives done by founders of the partner organisation in Ukraine side like the reflooding of Ermakov-island and the Tataru project in Izmail Islands park, and Babina and Cernovka islands on the Romanian side.

 

Aerials over the Letea forest, Danube delta rewilding area, Romania

 

Welcome in the Danube Delta
by Rewilding Europe

 

 

 

Rewilding a Nation - Full Nature and Wildlife Documentary
by The Biome Project

It’s been a long and thrilling journey but we’re so pleased to share our documentary 'Rewilding a Nation'.

We embarked on our flagship project, 'Rewilding A Nation', last year, and it’s been such an incredible journey! Robi Watkinson and Emma Hodson travelled across Britain and even to The Netherlands documenting the story of the rewilding movement, from it’s inception at the groundbreaking Oostervardersplasen experiment outside Amsterdam, to the return of the beaver, bison and (hopefully one-day ??) the lynx to Britain!
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Along the way, we got to meet some of the inspiring and dedicated people driving rewilding in Britain forward. We spoke to the pioneering conservationist Derek Gow on his farm about his hopes for the lynx in Britain. We chatted with the author and environmental activist George Monbiot about the lost wolves of Britain, and how to rewild the people too. Paul Jepson fascinated us with tales of Shifting Baseline Syndrome and visions of what once was! Hannah Needham revealed the challenges that many people face engaging with rewilding in an urbanised, and disconnected society. And we had a profound conversation with Jasmine Ira Qureshi on the barriers that still exist to many people, preventing them from engaging with nature and rewilding, and some of the political and economic solutions that we might employ to change this!

The Biome Project is a Community Interest Company made up of like-minded filmmakers, zoologists, marketeers and journalists, working together to create educational content about our planet and its wildlife

 

 

Rewilding Britain

Rewilding Britain is an organisation founded in 2015 that aims to promote the rewilding of Great Britain. It is a registered charity in England and Wales, and also in Scotland.
Rewilding Britain aims to tackle the climate emergency and extinction crisis, reconnect people with the natural world and to help communities thrive.

The Rewilding Network supports a growing movement of rewilding practitioners across Britain, wherever they are in their journey to restore nature.

 

Creating Miracles in the Desert: Restoring Dixie Creek
by Intermountain West Joint Venture

Dixie Creek is a small stream near Elko, Nevada. Changes in livestock grazing practices resulted in the plants that naturally grow along streams to come back which eventually attracted beaver. The beaver built dams which captured and slowed stream flows, ultimately creating a landscape full of water and wildlife even during recent periods of severe drought. Interviews with stakeholders show how a recovered stream can benefit a wide range of interests and offer hope for a better future. The story of Dixie Creek’s recovery was produced by Reno, Nevada-based production company, Little Wild, and co-funded by the IWJV/BLM and NRCS/WLFW.

 

 

 

Africa ReWilded | A Story About 21st Century Wildlife Conservation
by Zeyba Untamed | South Africa

Join us as we explore one of the most magical places on our planet and learn about an incredible, yet sometimes controversial movement helping restore and conserve South Africa’s wildlife and its habitats.

 

 

The Rewilders: Queensland, Australia | Nature Based Solutions
by SUGi

Learn how Brett is restoring native habitat, one patch at a time, for the endangered Southern Cassowary and Mahogany Glider in Queensland, Australia. The Miyawaki Revolution!

 

Rewilding urban farm - Abandoned Japan
by softypapa

Take a momentary stroll down memory lane with me as I encounter a quaint pink-colored house that holds a pivotal significance in my family's journey. This humble abode, nestled amidst the picturesque backdrop of Japan, was a symbol of our aspirations and dreams. Nine months before venturing to America for a job interview in the vast realm of IT, my family and I had fervently wished to make this house our home. The anticipation was palpable, with visions of a new furry family member and the sweet resonance of laughter filling its rooms.

But as fate would have it, we were denied this dwelling. A veil of sadness cloaked us. Yet, unbeknownst to us, this very rejection set the wheels of destiny in motion. It was this turn of events that made us venture forth to America, embracing challenges and seizing opportunities. Today, as I look back, I realize that if we had secured this house, our narrative would have been vastly different. The deep-rooted ties we'd have formed with this home would have made the thought of leaving Japan unconceivable.

 

 

The Extreme Rewilding of Chernobyl: this is what happens when humans leave
by Mossy Earth

In this video, we explore Chernobyl as an example of what happens when humans leave and nature takes over. It's the perfect example of extreme rewilding. Humans are kept out by radiation and this gives wild animals an opportunity to recolonise the area.

 

 

 

UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

There has never been a more urgent need to revive damaged ecosystems than now.

Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet - and its people. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean. It can help to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent a mass extinction. It will only succeed if everyone plays a part.

Welcome to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
by Rewild

What happens when we restore wild places? They heal. The UN just launched the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global rallying cry to heal our planet. At Re:wild, we love this because we know that protecting and restoring the wild is our best shot at addressing the interconnected climate, biodiversity and pandemic crises. We're launching a series of videos to highlight the importance of ecosystems. Get started with our intro video

 

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, for the benefit of people and nature. It aims to halt the degradation of ecosystems, and restore them to achieve global goals. Only with healthy ecosystems can we enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change, and stop the collapse of biodiversity.

The UN Decade runs from 2021 through 2030, which is also the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals and the timeline scientists have identified as the last chance to prevent catastrophic climate change.

The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed the UN Decade following a proposal for action by over 70 countries from all latitudes. View the resolution here.

 

World Restoration Flagships

Countries have already promised to restore 1 billion hectares – an area larger than China – as part of international climate, nature, and land goals. However, little is known about the progress or quality of this restoration.

With the World Restoration Flagships, the UN is honouring the best examples of large-scale and long-term ecosystem restoration in any country or region, embodying the 10 Restoration Principles of the UN Decade.

 

 

CONTENT

Futurist Portrait

David N. Bengston
Environmental Futurist, Research Economist

 

My current research is in the transdisciplinary field of Futures Research (also called Strategic Foresight or simply Futures). Futures Research uses a wide range of methods and techniques to explore possible, plausible, and preferable futures. The goal is to develop foresight — insight into how and why the future could be different than today — to improve policy, planning, and decision making. Examples of Futures Research methods and my projects include:

Scenario Planning is the most widely known and used Futures Research method. Scenarios are stories that describe a range of plausible futures, connect the present to the future using cause and effect links, and illustrate key events, decisions, and consequences in the narrative. Scenarios are not predictions. Rather, they are intended to portray an array of plausible futures to help decision-makers prepare for change in the face of fundamental uncertainty by building adaptive capacity and resilience. I have developed scenarios with research collaborators for North American forest management, wildland fire management, and wood-based nanomaterials futures.

Horizon Scanning is a set of techniques for identifying, collecting, and exploring the meaning of emerging issues, trends, and other signals of change that may be relevant for an organization or an area of interest. The goal is to find indicators of change and create an early warning system to detect potential future opportunities and threats. The Forest Futures Horizon Scanning Project is an ongoing collaborative effort by the Strategic Foresight Group and the Foresight Graduate Program at the University of Houston to identify emerging signals of change relevant for forestry decision makers.

The Futures Wheel is a structured brainstorming process that uncovers possible direct and indirect, positive and negative consequences of any type of change, such as the emerging signals of change identified through horizon scanning. Planners, managers and policy makers can use the results to help proactively consider longer-term and surprising effects of change to better prepare for it. I have facilitated many futures wheel exercises with diverse stakeholders, including explorations of the possible future impacts of abrupt climate change and the lack of age-class diversity in US Northern forests.

Serious Games have been used in diverse fields for many purposes in recent years, including engaging communities, informing planning, educating participants, and solving real-world problems. An important rationale for the use of gaming methods in Futures Research is that active learning methods are often most effective, and gaming approaches have been found to be effective ways to get participants to “pre-experience” alternative futures and gain understanding about preferred futures. Strategic Foresight Group scientists created the foresight game “IMPACT: Forestry Edition” to help players see the intricate, intertwined impacts of change across society on forests and the goods and services they provide.

Why This Research Is Important

Futures Research can provide a number of important contributions to planning, management, and policy in forestry, including:

Creating a longer-term perspective: The temporal scales considered in futures research are beyond the range usually used in planning and decision making. This longer-term perspective may help identify issues of concern as well as opportunities that could be overlooked in the prevailing shorter-term view.

Exploring key uncertainties and potential surprises: Futures Research can help identify fundamental uncertainties and potential surprises, especially those arising from other domains that could affect forest management, thereby facilitating the development of policies to increase adaptive capacity to deal with surprises.

Decreasing reaction time to rapid change: Insights about possible and plausible futures can help decrease reaction time as events rapidly unfold. Decision makers can explore possible responses in advance and react swiftly to change as it occurs. A classic business example is Royal Dutch Shell’s use of scenario planning and its subsequent quick response to the 1973-1974 OPEC oil embargo and price shock.

Anticipating unintended consequences: The methods of Futures Research can help identify potential unintended consequences of new technologies, proposed policies, and social and cultural trends. A better understanding of potential consequences of change can help in the design of strategies that will minimize negative consequences and enhance resilience.

Encouraging thinking big: Futures Research promotes thinking big in terms of multiple disciplinary perspectives, creative problem-solving, and a systems perspective, and can help all stakeholders take a broader and more creative view.

Shaping a preferred future: A preferred future or vision is a compelling statement of the future that a group or organization wants to create based on shared deep values and purpose. A clear, shared understanding of the preferred future enhances options and possibilities in the present.

 

 

 

IFTF Foresight Talks: Futures and Forests - Strategic Foresight at the U.S. Forest Service
by Institute for the Future

Institute for the Future, together with the US Forest Service's David Bengston and Jason Crabtree, hosted a webinar about how they're developing and applying foresight methods and thinking to help forest planners, managers, and policy makers anticipate and prepare for change.

 

CONTENT

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