A new documentary reveals the healing power of rewilding in Ukraine’s Danube Delta.

World Rewilding Day 2026: #ChooseOurFuture

Every March 20, people and organizations around the world celebrate the growing rewilding movement on World Rewilding Day. This year’s theme — #Choose our future — Highlights the power of the choices we make today to create a better tomorrow where wild nature and people thrive together.

The positive impact of rewilding across Europe and beyond shows that a wilder future is not only possible, but within our reach. By expanding the restoration of natural processes and giving nature the space and freedom to recover, we can build landscapes and seascapes where life is richer, more resilient, and better able to support thriving communities.

To mark this year’s celebration, Rewilding Europe is presenting the online premiere of a new documentary that brings this message to life in one of Europe’s most extraordinary wetland and steppe landscapes: the Danube Delta. This is where rewilding helps nature and humans move forward as one, despite the challenges of war.

A new chapter in the Wilder Europe series

“The Danube Delta and the Healing Power of Nature” is the sixth documentary in the Wilder Europe series produced by award-winning French videographer Emmanuel Rondeau with financial support from the law firm Hogan Lovells. Through striking images and intimate storytelling, this series shares inspiring stories of rewilding across Rewilding Europe’s landscape portfolio.

In May 2025, Emmanuel spent 10 days in the Ukrainian region of the Danube Delta Rewilding Region with the Rewilding Ukraine team and local partners. His travels took him from Ermakiv Island to the Tarutino Steppes. There, wetlands and grasslands are coming back to life through a variety of long-term rewilding efforts, from removing levees and dams to restore natural water flows to releasing large grazers such as buffalo and Koenig horses to open the landscape and increase biodiversity.

The healing power of nature

The central theme of Emmanuel’s documentary is healing and hope. In the Danube Delta, rewilding is helping nature bounce back by restoring natural dynamism, restoring habitats and supporting the return of wildlife. But it also helps people heal.

In recent years, the delta has become a place where people can reconnect with nature in a very meaningful way. For Ukrainian war veterans in particular, time spent in this revitalized landscape showed how nature can support emotional recovery. In a country marred by uncertainty, conflict and trauma, wild nature can offer hope in these difficult times by providing a space to reflect, reset and begin again.

“The idea to bring veterans and their families to rewilding areas such as Ermakiv Island was born about 18 months ago,” explains Rewilding Ukraine team leader Oleg Dyakov. “I am very happy to be able to do this now.

“I will never forget the voices of a group of buffalo and Koenig horses when I saw them for the first time in the delta. I understood that being in the wild nature allows them to forget about any problems and take home a sense of hope and serenity when they leave.”

Join the Online Premiere

The online premiere of “The Danube Delta and the Healing Power of Nature” will be held on 20 March at 1600 CET as part of Rewilding Europe’s World Rewilding Day celebrations.

Register to watch the online premiere

A pre-recorded Q&A session featuring Emmanuel Rondeau and Oleg Dyakov will be screened immediately following the premiere. There will also be a Ukrainian premiere, details of which will be announced later.

bring the story home

The new documentary will be shared through a series of local premieres in the Delta itself. In the city of Vilkove, a screening for children and adults will be held on March 18, followed by a second premiere in the Borodino community on March 20.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A session for adults and a team-led presentation and workshop for children. In total, approximately 250 children are expected to participate in the premiere from both communities. A separate closed screening for partners will also be held on March 20 at the Danube Biosphere Reserve office in Vylkove.

An outdoor photography exhibition will accompany the premiere, giving local residents another opportunity to reconnect with the story. The exhibition, which consists of 32 photographs showing natural restoration, wildlife and landscapes, will be on display in Vylkove from March 16 to 18 before moving to the Borodino community from March 19 to 29.

Choosing a harsher future for the Danube Delta

Emmanuel’s documentary shows that rewilding is much more important than conservation. It is about renewing the relationships between rivers and floodplains, people and places, human well-being and the vitality and resilience of natural systems. The story told in the film is part of a much larger journey.

Rewilding work in the Danube Delta will continue in 2026, with plans to further improve natural water flows in more than 8,000 hectares of wetlands, restore forests, reintroduce additional deer and eagle-owls, and monitor the status of ecosystem recovery. Efforts to restore the Tarutino Steppe and enhance natural grazing across the wider landscape will also continue. Plans for the reintroduction of kulans, groundhogs, hamsters and suslik are underway, as is ongoing work to help people and wildlife share space.

Community engagement through education, tourism and other nature-based activities will be central to these efforts. Ongoing nature programs for veterans, youth outreach, and support for nature-based economies will help keep people at the center of the story of bringing nature back to life. This is it #Choose our future I actually mean it. By choosing to rewild today, we can help create a future where rivers flow freely, wildlife returns, and people and nature thrive together. In the Danube Delta, this future is already starting to unfold.

Register to watch the online premiere

Want to know more?