Project wildE - Climate Smart Rewilding: BIOPOLIS-CIBIO team organised three successful stakeholder workshops in the Portuguese case studies of Baixo Sabor and Antarr

In June 2025, BIOPOLIS-CIBIO organized three stakeholder workshops as part of the wildE – Climate Smart Rewilding project, focusing on the two Portuguese case studies: Baixo Sabor and Antarr.

wildE is a Horizon Europe-funded project that brings together 22 organizations from across Europe, integrating cutting-edge scientific research with practical implementation. The initiative aims to develop an innovative approach to ecological restoration that delivers benefits for both climate and biodiversity, while also addressing the needs of local communities. The project focuses on climate-smart rewilding as a response to the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. It collaborates closely with policymakers, local communities, and businesses to generate new knowledge, methodologies, and tools tailored to this approach. A key component involves establishing effective, two-way dialogue with stakeholders involved in rewilding processes. This includes engaging local actors in eight case studies across Europe and working with relevant scientific and policy stakeholders. Two of these case studies are located in Portugal: Baixo Sabor, a Mediterranean rural landscape, and Antarr, a case of ecological restoration in a corporate context.

On 17 June, the BIOPOLIS-CIBIO team brought together a group of 19 stakeholders to participate in the first stakeholder workshop for the Baixo Sabor region. The workshop assembled a broad span of groups with a strong territorial presence, including beekeepers, hunters, NGOs, academics, livestock and forestry producers, Biosphere Reserve representatives, fishermen, hydrological private companies, as well as representatives from central and local public administrations. The participants actively engaged in discussions on how land use has changed over time, how this affects ecosystem services, and the role of wildfires and wildlife in the region. Most group members also attended the second workshop on 27 June, where they actively worked on constructing ideal landscape scenarios for the region, first individually and then in groups. Overall, it was a dynamic session with lively stakeholder engagement, whose promising results offer valuable baseline information for wildE’s next research stages in the region.

On 24 June, the teams from BIOPOLIS-CIBIO and Antarr met with a group of key stakeholders in São Pedro do Sul for a working session, with a total of 22 participants representing a broad suite of stakeholder entities (companies, tourism sector, foresters, beekeepers, conservation NGOs, and local public administration). Following presentations of the wildE project and the Antarr case study, attendees took part in three interactive sessions focused on understanding stakeholder perceptions regarding landscape evolution, relationships between land-use categories and ecosystem services, and envisioning future landscapes. Each attendee shared their personal perspective on what the ideal landscape would look like for the designated working areas, sparking thoughtful discussion. The exercise was then repeated in groups with the goal to reach a consensus on the landscape future. A second workshop will follow in autumn to present and discuss the investigation results.