Urban Rewilding: Amsterdam's Oostvaardersplassen Reserve

After disaster struck in 2018, Amsterdam's major urban rewilding project has recovered and is rebuilding natural spaces for the city's animals and wildlife.

The incredibly Dutch named Oostvaardersplassen has become a centrepiece for much of the debate around the merits of rewilding urban spaces in Europe. The project, which dates all the way back to the first drainings of the site in 1968, aimed to provide a centre of rewilding in Northern Europe, a place just 30 minutes drive from Amsterdam, and attached to the small Dutch city of Almere. The project is over 18,000 acres of reclaimed and rewilded land that aims to build habitats for native Dutch birdlife, small mammal-life, and most significantly, the herd of Konik horses allowed to roam free in the place.