Elena Pearce, former postdoc and now affiliated researcher at ECONOVO, is currently cycling from London to Singapore. Along the way, she’ll be sending occasional updates to ECONOVO reflecting on the wild nature, biodiversity and novel ecosystems she encounters en route!
The Loire, known as France’s last wild river, is a cool example of wild nature and human life coexisting in close proximity. Passing through major cities like Orléans, Tours, and Nantes, it remains largely untamed, shaped by seasonal floods and shifting sandbanks. Between 2018 and 2025, the LIFE Loire en Forez project has been restoring a 30 km stretch, remobilising sediments and improving natural flow, while efforts since 2020 to remove groynes are rebalancing the riverbed.
Restoration of secondary water bodies connected to the river is enhancing biodiversity and reconnecting communities with revitalised waterways. Meanwhile, Atlantic salmon, long absent, are returning through reintroduction efforts. The Loire is a beautiful place, and a great reminder that wildness can thrive even in the heart of human settlements.
Velebit mountains. Home to wolf, bear and lynx, the Velebit Mountains are a vast spread of wild nature rarely seen in Europe today. We cycled past limestone peaks, karst fields, and cloud forests of beech, silver fir, elm and rowan, where the high elevation caused endless rain. The shrub layer was full of honeysuckle, buckthorn, Alpine rose, mezereon and laburnum. Calamint, wood sorrel, cuckoo flower, navelwort and spurges covered the ground.
The Velebit Mountains are protected both as a national park and the a core area of Rewilding Velebit - part of the wider Rewilding Europe initiative. Efforts here focus on restoring natural processes and promoting coexistence between people and wildlife. Natural grazing is being re-established with free-roaming Tauros and semi-wild horses, supporting mosaic habitats and boosting biodiversity. The area now spans 30,000 hectares under wildlife-friendly management, with hunting concessions being repurposed towards a wildlife-based economy. Red deer have been reintroduced, lynx populations are being reinforced through the LIFE Lynx project, and camera traps monitor animal movements. Additional work includes restoring water sources, mapping bear dens, and reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions.
The work at Velebit is so impressive, and all part of a broader transition towards ecological restoration and resilience. It was a magical place to visit!
