Rewilding is transforming the outlook for communities and nature in eastern Spain’s Iberian Highlands, where Rewilding Spain are undertaking an ambitious project to restore an 850,000-hectare landscape featuring forest, grassland, and rocky canyons. A new documentary by award-winning filmmaker Emmanuel Rondeau, which recently premiered in one of the landscape’s most beautiful al fresco settings, tells an intimate story of this transformation.
Breathing new life into nature and communities
Rewilding has huge potential to deliver a wilder and better future for both people and nature. In eastern Spain’s vast and sparsely populated Iberian Highlands, local communities face many challenges as a result of long-term rural depopulation and land abandonment. The ongoing recovery of wild nature – which has so far encompassed the release of iconic herbivores such as Przewalski’s horses, Serrano horses, and Tauros – is now changing the socio-economic outlook and revitalising the landscape in a holistic way.
Rondeau.
“Breathing New Life into the Iberian Highlands”, a new, 15-minute documentary by award-winning French filmmaker Emmanuel Rondeau of White Fox Pictures, is a beautiful and intimate portrayal of this revitalisation. The latest in a series of inspiring short films designed to showcase the work of Rewilding Europe – which are being produced with financial support from global law firm Hogan Lovells – it focuses on the translocation of 10 Przewalski’s horses from the Monts D’Azur Biological Reserve in France to the Iberian Highlands in May 2023, and the wider efforts of the Iberian Highlands rewilding team to recover nature and reinvigorate communities across the landscape.
Spectacular screening
The premiere of “Breathing New Life into the Iberian Highlands” took place in the landscape on 11 July. The al fresco event attracted a large and diverse audience, who gathered together in Barranco de la Hoz (De la Hoz Canyon), a spectacular natural site in Alto Tajo Natural Park, in Guadalajara Province. The area’s riverside cliffs and riparian forest, which host populations of Iberian ibex and vultures, provided the perfect backdrop to the film.
Around 120 people, including mayors, representatives of the Castilla-La Mancha government and local municipalities, entrepreneurs, forest rangers, nature tourism guides, local NGOs, volunteers, and residents of local communities, gathered together at the inaugural screening, which helped the Iberian Highlands rewilding team to build engagement with a wide range of stakeholders.
Burgeoning socio-economic impact
Before they watched the documentary, the audience enjoyed a presentation by Rewilding Spain team leader Pablo Schapira. There was also and a panel discussion involving three people featured in the film, including Deli Saavedra, Rewilding Europe’s Head of Landscapes, and Ossian de Leyva, cofounder of local NGO Micorriza, which comprises young professionals working in environmental, education, and cultural services in the landscape.
In his talk, Pablo highlighted rewilding’s burgeoning socio-economic impact in the Iberian Highlands. The growth of Rewilding Spain, for example, which means the initiative now employs 17 people, is helping to rejuvenate the landscape by enabling individuals and families to either stay in or repopulate the area. Rewilding Spain’s herd manager, Pablo Villa, who features in Emmanuel Rondeau’s film, returned to the Iberian Highlands with his family in 2023.
“The new documentary is the perfect showcase of rewilding’s holistic approach to conservation,” says Pablo Schapira. “It shows how a growing number of local entities, associations, and communities are embracing rewilding as an opportunity to address environmental and social challenges, such as depopulation and lack of opportunities for young people.”
Positive feedback
The new documentary was well-received, with many of those attending the premiere highlighting its uplifting message and potential to promote the Iberian Highlands, both in Spain and farther afield.
“I was so pleased and proud to see the efforts of the rewilding team and partners, who are now working hard to change the story of this part of Spain,” says Raúl Martínez, who hosts a local radio show about nature. “Making the natural wonders of the area more well-known beyond our borders can only bring more benefits.”
Faustino Martínez, mayor of Villanueva de Alcorón, was “impressed and proud” of the role his village played in the film. The village of Villanueva de Alcorón was the release site for the two herds of Przewalski’s horses which arrived in the Iberian Highlands in 2023.
Nature recovery delivers growing opportunities
The Iberian Highlands became Rewilding Europe’s tenth rewilding landscape in late 2022 with support from the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme. From an ecological perspective, the biggest win so far has been the development of natural grazing at different sites across the landscape, with more than 11,000 hectares of land now being grazed by wild and semi-wild horses, as well as Tauros. The panel discussion held before the screening also involved Benito Lacasa, a farmer and former mayor of the village of Frías de Albarracín, where Spain’s first ever Tauros herd was established in 2021.
The recovery of nature is delivering socio-economic opportunities on a growing scale. Rewilding Spain is working hard to boost local economies through nature-based tourism, and to promote the landscape as a destination for nature lovers and wildlife enthusiasts. The rewilding team have already signed partnership agreements with a wide range of nature-based tourism companies, while local entrepreneurs have received loans worth more than 210,000 euros from Rewilding Europe Capital, Rewilding Europe’s enterprise loan facility.
With the goal of raising awareness of rewilding and its benefits, Rewilding Spain’s education programme has already taken more than 300 local primary and secondary school students to see Tauros in the landscape. Here they learned how these impressive herbivores can enhance biodiversity and minimise the risk of catastrophic wildfire outbreaks.
Watch the documentary
To find out more about the Iberian Highlands restoration project, visit their project page. This article was originally published on the Rewilding Europe website.
