Rewilding Expertise Centre

Planken Wambuis met grote grazers

Rewilding is increasingly applied across the world to stimulate biodiversity recovery, improving ecosystem functioning and mitigate and adapt to climate change. There is increasing experience with rewilding in practice and through research. To synthesize this information, identify knowledge gaps and make knowledge on rewilding available, the Rewilding Expertise Centre started in September 2025. Over time the Rewilding Expertise Centre aims to grow into a network of rewilding researchers, practitioners and any holders of knowledge on rewilding and function as a knowledge hub for rewilding information and education.

Mission

The Rewilding Expertise Centre aims to develop and share knowledge on rewilding principles and outcomes. It does so by bringing together rewilding expertise from science and practice and making this knowledge available

Wetland rewilding
Nacho Villar

What is rewilding

Rewilding is giving more room to natural processes

Konik horses
Nacho Villar

Education

From October 29 - December 10 2025 we organize a Capita Selecta course on Rewilding at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Lectures will take place on Wageningen campus, every Wednesday 16:40 - 18:15. This course can also be followed by participants from other universities or outside of academia. It is possible to attend the course online for participants from elsewhere.

There will be seven double lectures, on topics:

  • What is rewilding
  • Natural processes
  • Rewilding in different habitats
  • Rewilding in practice
  • Rewilding and the law
  • Human-wildlife coexistence and humans in rewilded landscapes
  • Scale of rewilding

With an optional field visit to the Maashorst (in the Netherlands) on November 8 Sign up / indicate your interest via this link: https://forms.office.com/e/b2FwsfqD8a

Invitation poster for Capita Selecta

Contact

The Rewilding Expertise Centre is an initiative from the Chair in Rewilding Ecology, a collaboration between Wageningen University and the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), held by Prof. Liesbeth Bakker. The Rewilding Expertise Centre is operated by Prof. Liesbeth Bakker and Dr. Nacho Villar, researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW).

For more information, please send an email to rewilding@nioo.knaw.nl

Initiators