Rewilding Spain opens call for grants targeting companies and self-employed individuals who are starting or developing business activities aligned with rewilding principles in the landscape.
This grant programme aims at promoting the development of business initiatives and self-employed initiatives in the Iberian Highlands that are aligned with the principles of rewilding. The objectives is to support innovative and nature-friendly projects that are committed to nature recovery through restoration based on natural processes.
The grant programme has a total budget of €17,000 and will provide a maximum of €5,000 funding per project. The call for applications is open to both established businesses, start-ups and self-employed professionals who carry out their activity in any of the municipalities that make up the Rewilding Spain working area in the Iberian Highlands, which covers the regions of Molina de Aragón-Alto Tajo (Guadalajara), Serranía Alta de Cuenca (Cuenca) and Sierra de Albarracín (Teruel).
Activities eligible for funding through this call include any economic activity that makes use of the landscapes’s natural resources, including:
- Ecotourism.
- Use of forest resources: wood, mycology, or wild plants.
- Sustainable hunting and the processing of wild or organically produced products.
When evaluating the projects submitted, the criteria that Rewilding Spain will take into account will be alignment with the rewilding principles, ecological and biodiversity impact, technical, operational and economic feasibility, as well as innovation, sustainability and scaling potential.
Applications can be submitted until October 15th, and only one proposal per entity will be accepted. The information, requirements and submission process can be found in the terms and conditions of the call for proposals.
This initiative is part of Rewilding Spain’s vision for rewilding the Iberian Highlands, with the aim of ensuring that nature recovery has a positive impact on the lives of the people in the landscape. This way, rewilding can also play a role as a driver for rural development and improve the connection between people and nature.
Basilio Rodríguez, Nature for People manager at Rewilding Spain in the Iberian Highlands, remarked that with this programme “we aim to give all entrepreneurs and businesspeople in Alto Tajo, Serranía de Cuenca and Sierra de Albarracín regions who are committed to the sustainable use of natural resources the opportunity to expand, improve or start new economic activities. Rewilding not only aims to improve the condition of nature, but also to enable the inhabitants of our rural areas to improve their living.’
