KarunaNews Story

A herd of 170 bison reintroduced to Romania’s Țarcu mountains could help store an additional 54,000 tonnes of carbon equivalent to removing 43,000 US cars from the road for a year, according to a model developed by scientists at the Yale School of the Environment. Since Rewilding Europe and WWF Romania reintroduced 100 European bison to the southern Carpathian mountains in 2014, the herd has grown to more than 170 today, one of the largest free-roaming populations in Europe. The herd has also inspired nature-based tourism and businesses around rewilding. Other species, including tropical forest elephants, musk oxen and sea otters, show similar promise, often doubling an ecosystem’s capacity to draw down and store carbon.