What is Living Side by Side? – Living Side by Side

What is the “Living Side by Side” project?

Across Europe, people have shown overwhelming support for the return of nature and wildlife, including the large carnivores. This has been confirmed in survey after survey. Now we want to discover and share how people already live side by side with their local large carnivores.

The project Living Side by Side (launched on 1 July 2025) showcases how Europeans coexist with the continent’s magnificent large carnivores close to their homes – the Eurasian lynx, Iberian lynx, bear, wolf, wolverine and golden jackal.

Exploring to inspire change

In the coming years we will highlight local benefits, show how conflicts are being prevented or reduced, and explore how a wider acceptance can be built, and showing solutions that can be applied across Europe.  

A part of the solution 

By harnessing the emotional power of compelling visuals and storytelling, we aim to inspire change. The spotlight will be on real-life benefits, practical solutions and new business opportunities connected to the large carnivores, while at the same time addressing the challenges ahead.

Sharing is caring 

We will share the stories we uncover, by working with media, selected local NGO’s, and wildlife watching entrepreneurs – supporting them with powerful imagery and narratives. In addition, we will reach out to European decision-makers with stories seldom heard, showing the values that large carnivores can bring to countryside economies.

Who are we? 

Magnus Lundgren and Staffan Widstrand are award-winning professional photographers and visual communicators, authors of 19 books, with extensive experience in wildlife issues. They are founders of communication projects such as Wild Wonders of Europe (reached 800 million people) and Wild Wonders of China, and co-founders of Rewilding Europe.

Building on success 

Living Side by Side builds on the success of our previous project Sweden’s Big Five (link) (2023–2025), which generated widepread international attention, including coverage in CNN, The Guardian, Brussels Times, Euronews, Le Monde, Science and Der Spiegel.