In this video you will learn about the experiences of 'Rewilding Dutch Rivers' looking in particular at two examples: the Gelderse Poort ( Milingerwaard ) and Border Meuse (Meuse Valley River Park).
Wouter Helmer (1960) co-founder and director (until 2015) of ARK Nature, one of the key rewilding partners of Rewilding Europe, in which he implemented hundreds of rewilding initiatives since 1989 throughout the Netherlands and later on in other parts of Europe.
He is the co-writer of several change-making visions like ‘Living Rivers’ and ‘Growing with the Sea’. He is also the co-inventor of new concepts for nature conservation and management like natural grazing, cyclic rejuvenation of floodplains, temporary nature in fallow areas, an international herd fund, landscape auctions and nature compensation in advance. Setting up campaigns about climate adaptation in natural buffer zones and ‘Missing Lynx’ about missing connections in nature conservation.
He has a lot of experiences in bringing big visions into practice, as was the case in areas like the Border Meuse, the Gelderse Poort, the transboundary Kempen~Broek (B/NL), several coastal areas in the Netherlands and projects in Latvia (‘Letlands’) and Bulgaria (‘New Thracian Gold’). His involvement in European nature conservation goes back to a study on ecosystems in Thracia, which ended up in a proposal for the Council of Europe to protect a biogenetic reserve in the northern part of Greece.
Wouter Helmer is the winner of several prizes on nature conservation in the Netherlands and he is Honorary Lector at the Forestry and Nature Management Programme at Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, part of Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Wouter Helmer is one of the four founding members of Rewilding Europe, representing the organisation in Dam Removal Europe, responsible for rewilding aspects in Rewilding Europe Capital and manager of GRAZELIFE, a LIFE Preparatory Project on request of the European Commission to improve policies, legislation and subsidies on (cost)effective grazing systems regarding biodiversity, climate adaptation and other ecosystem services.
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