Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NaturaConnect (NaturaConnect - Designing a resilient and coherent Trans-European Network for Nature and People)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-01-01 bis 2025-06-30
The European Union 2030 Biodiversity Strategy aims to put species and ecosystems on the path to recovery, preserving and restoring Europe's natural capital, and placing Europe at the forefront of global biodiversity conservation efforts. A key component of such Strategy is the development of a Trans-European Nature Network (TEN-N) of protected areas and ecological corridors. The designation of new protected areas should contribute to achieving 30% of the land protected–including inland waters–, increasing the ecological representativeness and the resilience of the network, also through the inclusion of novel designations of strict protection and the appropriate management of areas for ecological connectivity.
The TEN-N should create a functionally connected system assimilating biodiversity conservation goals together with nature-based solutions for societal needs, such as green and blue infrastructure. In the face of global change, the Network should also ensure that species communities can adapt with sufficiently large and connected spaces for nature. Achieving these goals requires novel planning approaches that integrate models of biodiversity and ecosystem change with conservation prioritization tools and participatory processes, involving key stakeholders and sectors for setting the criteria. Member States of the EU face the challenge of identifying these criteria and the lack of appropriate technical planning tools to maximize the representativeness and connectivity of the network at the European scale.
NaturaConnect aims to support the development of the TEN-N through transdisciplinary research. NaturaConnect seeks to develop data, analytical tools, and knowledge to explore solutions –i.e. the blueprint for TEN-N configurations. NaturaConnect, further analyses best-practice for governance of area-based conservation measures and potential funding mechanisms to provide the European Commission and Member States with a comprehensive collection of planning and implementation support tools.
The TEN-N should create a functionally connected system assimilating biodiversity conservation goals together with nature-based solutions for societal needs, such as green and blue infrastructure. In the face of global change, the Network should also ensure that species communities can adapt with sufficiently large and connected spaces for nature. Achieving these goals requires novel planning approaches that integrate models of biodiversity and ecosystem change with conservation prioritization tools and participatory processes, involving key stakeholders and sectors for setting the criteria. Member States of the EU face the challenge of identifying these criteria and the lack of appropriate technical planning tools to maximize the representativeness and connectivity of the network at the European scale.
NaturaConnect aims to support the development of the TEN-N through transdisciplinary research. NaturaConnect seeks to develop data, analytical tools, and knowledge to explore solutions –i.e. the blueprint for TEN-N configurations. NaturaConnect, further analyses best-practice for governance of area-based conservation measures and potential funding mechanisms to provide the European Commission and Member States with a comprehensive collection of planning and implementation support tools.
The project has produced a set of ~150 spatial TEN-N variants integrating modelled distributions for an unprecedented number of species and habitats and ecosystem services at a resolution of 1-km, further accounting for socio-economic costs, land use scenarios, ecological connectivity and climate resilience. These scenarios identify priorities for conservation, strict protection and restoration, as elements of a coherent and resilient TEN-N.
The project has also evaluated the connectivity of the Natura2000 network for 27 different ecological archetypes (species with similar traits related to dispersal ecology) and has developed a novel workflow to identify and prioritise functional corridors at the Pan-European scale for the different species archetypes.
To assess the future feasibility and resilience of TEN-N the project team has produced spatially explicit data for land–use and climate scenarios in Europe. The land-use projections are spatial realization of different storylines of Nature-Positive futures, based on the IPBES Nature Futures framework, and for which scenario storylines have been published during 2025. These scenarios will be used in the context of the project to identify areas of higher opportunity for conservation, restoration and rewilding, and areas where nature conservation will be challenged by higher expected competition for extractive or productive activities, as well as urban sprawling.
The project team has also completed a review and synthesis of best governance and policy practices for implementing ecological corridors with green and blue infrastructure and effectively managing protected areas. This effort involved an in-depth examination of current policies and governance practices using Political Economy Analysis (PEA). The result was a series of recommendations for mainstreaming best practices and reducing implementation gaps summarised in various steps, from the identification of implementation challenges and their causes to five proposed solution pathways. In addition, a series of factsheets describing potential funding sources for TEN–N has been produced after a desk research that analysed the suitability of each of these sources to fund the management of protected areas and connectivity conservation projects.
Predictive species distribution models have been completed for 12,468 plant species, 6,844 invertebrate and 1,210 terrestrial vertebrate species. Predictive models on ecosystem extent have been similarly produced for all EUNIS Level–3 habitat classes (N=234). Furthermore, a set of ecosystem services layers has been produced based on models for present and future climate and land use. These include carbon storage and sequestration, soil retention, crop pollination, the landscape recreational potential, and species-based ecosystem services such as carrion removal, pest control, and evolutionary heritage. All data has been made openly available following FAIR principles.
The project has also evaluated the connectivity of the Natura2000 network for 27 different ecological archetypes (species with similar traits related to dispersal ecology) and has developed a novel workflow to identify and prioritise functional corridors at the Pan-European scale for the different species archetypes.
To assess the future feasibility and resilience of TEN-N the project team has produced spatially explicit data for land–use and climate scenarios in Europe. The land-use projections are spatial realization of different storylines of Nature-Positive futures, based on the IPBES Nature Futures framework, and for which scenario storylines have been published during 2025. These scenarios will be used in the context of the project to identify areas of higher opportunity for conservation, restoration and rewilding, and areas where nature conservation will be challenged by higher expected competition for extractive or productive activities, as well as urban sprawling.
The project team has also completed a review and synthesis of best governance and policy practices for implementing ecological corridors with green and blue infrastructure and effectively managing protected areas. This effort involved an in-depth examination of current policies and governance practices using Political Economy Analysis (PEA). The result was a series of recommendations for mainstreaming best practices and reducing implementation gaps summarised in various steps, from the identification of implementation challenges and their causes to five proposed solution pathways. In addition, a series of factsheets describing potential funding sources for TEN–N has been produced after a desk research that analysed the suitability of each of these sources to fund the management of protected areas and connectivity conservation projects.
Predictive species distribution models have been completed for 12,468 plant species, 6,844 invertebrate and 1,210 terrestrial vertebrate species. Predictive models on ecosystem extent have been similarly produced for all EUNIS Level–3 habitat classes (N=234). Furthermore, a set of ecosystem services layers has been produced based on models for present and future climate and land use. These include carbon storage and sequestration, soil retention, crop pollination, the landscape recreational potential, and species-based ecosystem services such as carrion removal, pest control, and evolutionary heritage. All data has been made openly available following FAIR principles.
In the course of the 2nd reporting period, some national and sub-national administrations have started to use NaturaConnect outputs to plan additional designations and land-use plans aimed at increasing ecological connectivity, especially in the case study countries (France) or local administration (city of Leipzig).
The key findings from the Review and synthesis of best practices in governance and land-use policies to implement TEN-N have been turned into a 3 page-document, translated in 18 languages and disseminated widely through direct emails, newsletters and social media campaigns.
Similar dissemination has occurred for NaturaConnect review of innovative financial instruments which we expect to improve awareness and capacity of practitioners to apply to these funding.
The key findings from the Review and synthesis of best practices in governance and land-use policies to implement TEN-N have been turned into a 3 page-document, translated in 18 languages and disseminated widely through direct emails, newsletters and social media campaigns.
Similar dissemination has occurred for NaturaConnect review of innovative financial instruments which we expect to improve awareness and capacity of practitioners to apply to these funding.