More than 250 European bison now roam the Țarcu Mountains of Romania’s Southern Carpathians — nearly half of them born in the wild — marking one of the continent’s most striking wildlife recoveries. To carry that story further, a new Bison Ambassadors programme has launched through the EU-funded LIFE with Bison initiative, recruiting three public figures to visit the landscape and share the bison comeback with wider audiences.
At a glance
- European bison recovery: More than 250 bison now roam freely in the Southern Carpathians, a region where the species had been absent for over 250 years before reintroduction began in 2014 C.E.
- Bison ambassadors programme: Three newly selected Romanian ambassadors — an actress, a regenerative farmer, and a university biologist — will visit the rewilding landscape starting this summer to document and share the bison’s return.
- LIFE with Bison initiative: The programme is led by a coalition including Rewilding Europe, Rewilding Romania, WWF Romania, WeWilder, and several local municipalities, building on more than a decade of rewilding work.
A species returned from silence
The European bison — the continent’s largest land mammal — vanished from Romanian forests roughly 250 years ago. By the early twentieth century, hunting and habitat loss had pushed the species to functional extinction in the wild entirely. Only a captive breeding programme kept it alive.
The first animals returned to the Țarcu Mountains in 2014 C.E. Since then, the population has grown steadily, and the milestone of 250-plus free-roaming bison represents something once considered impossible: a self-sustaining wild herd in a landscape that had forgotten the species existed. The fact that nearly half the current population was born in the wild confirms the herd is not just surviving — it is reproducing.
This is one of many species recovery and rewilding success stories emerging across Europe as conservation coalitions combine long-term funding with genuine community partnership.
What the ambassadors will do
The Bison Ambassadors programme pairs storytelling with on-the-ground experience. Rather than passive promotion, ambassadors are expected to spend time with the Rewilding Romania team, local communities, and students. They may witness bison releases, walk the landscape, and reflect on what rewilding actually looks like from the inside.
Each ambassador brings a distinct voice. Dana Rogoz is a well-known Romanian actress and filmmaker whose platform reaches audiences far outside the conservation world. Roxana Zaha is a regenerative farmer and anthropologist who already lives within the rewilding landscape, bringing a grounded perspective on what it means to farm alongside wild nature. Alexandru Stermin is a biologist, explorer, and university lecturer at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, whose career has focused on the relationship between humans and the natural world.
“Most ambassadorial roles give you a platform,” says Sebastian Ursuta, Rewilding Romania’s communications officer. “But these positions also offer a story. A story where the ending is yet to be written — and where those who take up the role can really help shape the narrative.”
The three ambassadors will communicate in their own style — through social media, travel journals, photography, and video — rather than following a scripted brief. That flexibility is deliberate. Authentic voices, the programme’s organizers believe, reach people that institutional conservation messaging rarely does.
Ecology and community, side by side
The bison’s return is not just symbolic. Research linked to the LIFE with Bison initiative suggests bison are already reshaping the Southern Carpathians at an ecological level. Their grazing, trampling, seed dispersal, and nutrient cycling create a richer mosaic of habitats — the kind of structural diversity that supports a wider range of plant and animal species.
There is also a climate dimension. Studies suggest bison could enhance an ecosystem’s capacity to capture and store carbon, though researchers are careful to note this remains an area of ongoing investigation rather than a settled conclusion. The programme’s goals include understanding these dynamics better over time.
For local communities, the growing herd is opening new economic possibilities, particularly through nature-based tourism. The LIFE with Bison coalition — which includes the municipalities of Armeniș, Teregova, and Cornereva alongside Rewilding Europe, Rewilding Romania, WWF Romania, WeWilder, and the Research and Development Institute for Wildlife and Mountain Resources — is working to develop what it calls “bison-smart communities,” helping people and bison find ways to thrive alongside each other rather than in tension.
A comparable approach is underway elsewhere in Iberia. Efforts to restore wild horses to degraded landscapes in Spain, for instance, show how large herbivores can reshape ecosystems while anchoring rural livelihoods — much as wild horse rewilding in Spain’s Iberian Highlands is demonstrating today. And in Portugal, the question of what comes next for rewilding is equally live: bison rewilding in the Côa Valley is testing whether similar herd-based recovery can work in a Mediterranean context.
What remains unresolved
The Southern Carpathians bison programme is a genuine success, but it is not without ongoing challenges. Managing the tension between a growing wild herd and local agricultural interests — particularly livestock farmers concerned about competition for grazing or disease transmission — remains a live issue that the “bison-smart communities” model is still working through. The long-term viability of the population also depends on continued political will and sustained funding from sources like the EU’s LIFE programme, which cannot be assumed indefinitely.
Alexandru Stermin put the stakes simply: “When you look into the eyes of a bison, you are reminded that you cannot protect nature — you can only choose not to betray it.”
The ambassadors’ visits begin this summer, with the programme expected to run across several years. Whether their storytelling expands public support enough to shape the next chapter of the bison’s return is, as Ursuta suggested, a story still being written.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Rewilding Europe
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Bison rewilding comes to Portugal’s Côa Valley
- Wild horses return to Spain’s Iberian Highlands
- The Good News for Humankind archive on species recovery and rewilding
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