Progress toward big challenges, like protecting rangelands and the pastoralists who use them, can be strengthened by finding partners who share common ground. In this co-authored article, we propose that pastoralism and conservation communities join forces to protect the large landscapes through which abundant wildlife and nomadic pastoralists have migrated since time immemorial.
Photo credit: Zeynep Sude Emek from Pexels.
The Global Rewilding Alliance exists to catalyse the global rewilding movement. Part of this journey is to support Rewilding In Action by convening experts and influencing policy and action at a global scale. Delve into our collective action for wetlands at COP15 and beyond, our new report on African wetlands, and the importance of recognising wild animals.
Photo credits: NamibElephant from Getty Images Signature.
New research published in Global Change Biology (Roberts et al., 2025) reveals that forests with healthy populations of wild Tigers store more carbon than ‘empty forests’ without Tigers — advancing the goals of both the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This provides additional compelling evidence that wildlife recovery is a critical, yet often overlooked, tool in climate mitigation.
Photo credit: Girishacf from Getty Images
Welcome to the 2024 Annual Review of the Global Rewilding Alliance Secretariat. Institutionally, the Secretariat set up itself as an Association in the Canton of Geneva hosted by the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) – an award-winning independent think tank focusing on climate change, natural resource use, and the economy.
On 4th March 2025, the team of the Global Rewilding Alliance met with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands Secretariat for an official handover of the recently published report ‘Taking Animals Into Account’, a report on wetlands and wild animals. From the discussions it became clear that the rewilding perspective is of high relevance for meeting the objectives of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
Photo credit: Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
On World Wetlands Day, the Global Rewilding Alliance and ten partner organisations launch a compelling report, Taking Animals into Account, that reveals how wild animals play an underestimated but vital role in keeping the world’s wetlands functional and resilient. Through 11 case studies, the study outlines impactful evidence that reintroducing and protecting key wild animal species could be a game-changer in tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, invasive species control, and water security challenges.
Wallowing Water Buffalo. Photo credit: Stephane Jaquemet from Getty Images.
Animating the Carbon Cycle (ACC) is an emerging field of science and policy, producing rigorous, peer-reviewed evidence to show how nature recovery is a credible, rapid and cost-efficient solution to address both the climate and biodiversity crises. A new comprehensive platform brings together tools and resources from collaborators in this field.
The ACC website (animatingcarbon.earth) is a comprehensive and regularly updated platform dedicated to providing the tools, resources, and practical guides for key stakeholders.
Through reinstalling natural processes, such on water, rewilding helps to reduce the risks of desertification.
How can rewilding help reduce desertification and its effects? This was the question set by the UN University in Bonn, Germany, in its assessment of seven ‘new’ land and water management approaches, of which rewilding was one. That the Global Rewilding Alliance took part in the process is a clear indication that rewilding as a relatively new perspective for the future management of land and water is receiving increasing attention outside the narrower conservation and wildlife community. This is indeed encouraging, and serves as an example of how the GRA is working towards fulfilling its mission: to mainstream rewilding in science, policy, and practice by 2030.
Photo credit: Peace Parks Foundation
At the Global Rewilding Alliance, our commitment goes beyond restoring ecosystems; we're dedicated to mainstreaming rewilding itself in practice, policy and science. Our goal is to bridge the gap between groundbreaking scientific discoveries and real-world impact,...
Exactly one week ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report on the current and future state of the Earth’s climate. The report had a rather dire message: we are unlikely to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement of cutting in half greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors by 2030, leave alone reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
New science published today reveals that protecting and enhancing the populations of even a limited number of wildlife species could help to keep rising global temperatures below the critical 1.5 °C threshold, while simultaneously reversing biodiversity decline and offering multiple other co-benefits.
BBC Radio 5 News interview with Oswald Schmidt on Animating the Carbon Cycle
The GRA is facilitating a high-level group of scientists, economists, and civil society organisations to launch an initiative that will demonstrate the direct impact of nature solutions on solving the climate emergency.
Individual presentations from the Animating the Carbon Cycle Webinar held the Global Rewilding Alliance on 3 June 2021.
Press Release: Today, as a part of a ground-breaking public discussion on humanity’s relationship with wild nature, global experts launch the new Rewilding and Climate Initiative.
Ocean rewilding is the large-scale restoration of marine ecosystems to the point where nature can take care of itself.
Oswald Schmitz on why animating the carbon cycle is an effective tool for fighting global warming
To meet societal challenges, such as climate change, disaster risk reduction, economic and social development, human health and water security, and environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, the concept of nature-based solutions (NbS) has been launched. This policy briefing was produced by the WILD Foundation, Wilderness Foundation Global, and the Wilderness Specialist Group (IUCN-WCPA).
The transformation of nature, and especially of primary ecosystems, has increased the exposure of humans to pathogens originating in wildlife. Together with the industrialisation of food production both on land and in sea and the conversion of land for farming and extractive industries, conversion has accounted for almost half of all global zoonotic infectious diseases.