Rewilding Romania plans to reintroduce vultures to Southern Carpathians

Rewilding Romania is preparing to reintroduce griffon and cinereous vultures to the Southern Carpathians in southwestern Romania.

The organization, working with the Romanian Ornithological Society, the Spanish conservation group GREFA, and the Vulture Conservation Foundation, plans to launch the LIFE for Vultures initiative in October 2026. This seven-year project aims to establish self-sustaining breeding populations of these scavengers to restore natural food webs and ecosystem health.

The project will reintroduce at least 170 griffon vultures and 24 cinereous vultures by 2033. The initiative uses a budget of more than 7.5 million euros, which the European Union’s LIFE Programme co-funds. Work began in 2023 with habitat and threat assessments. The team is currently finishing an acclimatisation aviary near Domogled. Valea Cernei National Park. Griffon vultures will be released starting in 2027, followed by cinereous vultures in 2030.

To ensure the birds survive, the project will create a specialist canine unit to detect poisoned baits and implement measures to prevent collisions with power lines. The team will also build supplementary feeding stations and artificial nesting platforms to support the birds while wild herbivore populations recover. Rewilding Romania says it will work with farmers and local authorities to coordinate these efforts and develop nature-based tourism opportunities like wildlife photography.