The Wild Heart Project

The Wild Heart Project aims to rekindle in our hearts love and desire for what is wild. The goal is simply to come into closer contact with life that is wild, and with vibrant ecosystems. I see it as particularly important to develop this love in children, who, animated with the desire for more vibrancy, will be able to continue the beautiful work of ecosystem restoration and rewilding that is starting to flourish all over Europe and beyond.

Caption photos easily. On the left, a road goes through a tunnel. Middle, leaves artistically fall in a hipster photoshoot. Right, in another hipster photoshoot, a lumberjack grasps a handful of pine needles.
This image can also have a caption. It's like magic.

The Wild Heart Project wishes to consciously shape our ecological memory to counter shifting baselines of what is nature, of what is scenic, of what is whole. Who in our generation remembers experiencing a cloud of butterflies rising around them upon setting foot in a meadow? We are content to see but a few fluttering here and there. We have forgotten how densely alive a forest, a meadow, a wetland, a river, a hedge, an old oak can be. We want to realize with all our senses that most of our environments in Europe – however picturesque, calm and natural looking – are in fact barren, and to discover what is possible instead. We want to develop a deep yearning for the wild to return, which would be within our reach if enough of us were to desire it.