Wildlife Comeback in Europe: Opportunities and challenges for species recovery

We present an update to “Wildlife Comeback in Europe”, a landmark report from 2013 which featured selected species of mammals and birds showing signs of recovery in terms of their abundance and distribution in Europe1 . Almost a decade later, we revisit the same set of species to see if these positive trends are continuing, while also expanding the number of species included. We present analyses on the drivers behind population recoveries and limits to population growth and discuss our findings in the context of ecosystem regeneration, and coexistence between people and nature in Europe. We used several data sets to produce detailed accounts for 50 species (24 mammal, 25 bird and one reptile species), and to synthesise the trends for an overall analysis. The key data sets used were the Living Planet Index Database2 , EU Birds Directive Article 12 reporting3 and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 4 . Extensive research was conducted in consultation with expert reviewers in order to describe and explain historical trends for each species and present the latest outlook. The synthesis of the trend data for mammals and birds included in this report is also presented in a scientific manuscript 5 . Our discussion sets the speciesbased results in context with a series of “Spotlights”, which are literature-based summaries of current and important topics on ecosystem health, and coexistence between people and nature focusing on: climate change, ecosystem restoration, monitoring and data gaps, and legal and policy frameworks. Final report to Rewilding Europe by the Zoological Society of London, BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council