Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NaturaConnect (NaturaConnect - Designing a resilient and coherent Trans-European Network for Nature and People)
Période du rapport: 2022-07-01 au 2023-12-31
The European Union 2030 Biodiversity Strategy aims to put species and ecosystems on the path to recovery by 2030, preserving and restoring Europe's natural capital, and placing Europe at the forefront of global biodiversity conservation efforts. These commitments are an urgent response to species declines and deterioration of nature. A key component of such Strategy is the development of a Trans-European Nature Network (TEN-N) that protect ecosystems and their contributions to people against threats from climate change and non-sustainable land use. The TEN-N is expected to increase the resilience of natural ecosystems with the backbone of the existing Natura 2000 Network and other nationally designated protected areas. The designation of new protected areas should contribute to achieving 30% of the land protected–including inland waters–, increasing the ecological representativeness of the network, and include novel designations of strict protection and ecological connectivity areas. Member States of the EU face the challenge of identifying criteria for such designations and planning tools to maximize the representativeness and connectivity of the network at the European scale.
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 sufficient 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. Such designs must be based on SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) conservation and management objectives and monitoring.
NaturaConnect aims to support the development of the TEN-N through transdisciplinary research. Participatory processes are central to its activities, involving stakeholder engagement across regional, national, and international levels. Predictive biodiversity and ecosystem service models are the backbone for protected area representativeness and connectivity analyses, accounting for multiple possible prioritization criteria and different perspectives and needs of nature conservation. 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 Statees 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 sufficient 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. Such designs must be based on SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) conservation and management objectives and monitoring.
NaturaConnect aims to support the development of the TEN-N through transdisciplinary research. Participatory processes are central to its activities, involving stakeholder engagement across regional, national, and international levels. Predictive biodiversity and ecosystem service models are the backbone for protected area representativeness and connectivity analyses, accounting for multiple possible prioritization criteria and different perspectives and needs of nature conservation. 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 Statees with a comprehensive collection of planning and implementation support tools.
During the first reporting period the project has synthesised knowledge and existing data on financial and governance instruments for TEN-N implementation, biodiversity observations, ecosystem services, land-use and climate scenarios and stakeholder perspectives on a future TEN-N, objectives and methods for connectivity modelling and planning, and spatial conservation prioritisation of conservation areas.
The data collection and knowledge synthesis has been instrumental for several project achievements during the first 18 months. A highlight has been the drafting of factsheets on financial instruments for funding the management of conserved areas and corridors. The data collection related to biodiversity distribution data has enabled an analysis of knowledge gaps related to species observational data, life-history, morphological and reproductive traits, as well as the production of the first statistical models of species distribution for plants, vertebrates and invertebrates (above and below-ground) and of habitat types.
The project has also produced the first European datasets of opportunity costs for conservation, which considers all major land-use types and the spatially explicit financial losses that occur when the current use is stopped to make space for strict protection. Following the desk-based review and stakeholder elicitation of perspectives on nature conservation in Europe, the project team has developed the first IPBES Nature Futures narratives for Europe, each presenting distinct perspectives and priorities across seven key themes: Protected Areas, Connectivity and Restoration, Forestry, Freshwater Ecosystems, Urban Systems, Agriculture, and Energy.
Another key achievement is the preparation of the Guidelines for connectivity conservation and planning in Europe, a result of a co-production process between NaturaConnect scientists and external scientists and practitioners across Europe. The guidelines cover the methodology, findings, and recommendations for assessing and planning for connectivity in different contexts and will be instrumental for the rest of the NaturaConnect work aimed at producing a strategic blueprint to enhance ecological connectivity across Europe.
During the first 18 months, NaturaConnect has also developed a quantitative framework to establish ecologically meaningful targets for the protected area of habitat a species requires, as well as producing pilot analyses that identify locations across Europe that provide the best additional benefits for biodiversity in an expanded, ecologically representative and climate resilient network.
The data collection and knowledge synthesis has been instrumental for several project achievements during the first 18 months. A highlight has been the drafting of factsheets on financial instruments for funding the management of conserved areas and corridors. The data collection related to biodiversity distribution data has enabled an analysis of knowledge gaps related to species observational data, life-history, morphological and reproductive traits, as well as the production of the first statistical models of species distribution for plants, vertebrates and invertebrates (above and below-ground) and of habitat types.
The project has also produced the first European datasets of opportunity costs for conservation, which considers all major land-use types and the spatially explicit financial losses that occur when the current use is stopped to make space for strict protection. Following the desk-based review and stakeholder elicitation of perspectives on nature conservation in Europe, the project team has developed the first IPBES Nature Futures narratives for Europe, each presenting distinct perspectives and priorities across seven key themes: Protected Areas, Connectivity and Restoration, Forestry, Freshwater Ecosystems, Urban Systems, Agriculture, and Energy.
Another key achievement is the preparation of the Guidelines for connectivity conservation and planning in Europe, a result of a co-production process between NaturaConnect scientists and external scientists and practitioners across Europe. The guidelines cover the methodology, findings, and recommendations for assessing and planning for connectivity in different contexts and will be instrumental for the rest of the NaturaConnect work aimed at producing a strategic blueprint to enhance ecological connectivity across Europe.
During the first 18 months, NaturaConnect has also developed a quantitative framework to establish ecologically meaningful targets for the protected area of habitat a species requires, as well as producing pilot analyses that identify locations across Europe that provide the best additional benefits for biodiversity in an expanded, ecologically representative and climate resilient network.
Our preliminary spatial prioritization analyses for designation of protected areas have proven helpful in identifying each country’s responsibility towards common European targets and suggest that achieving European conservation targets will be easier with more international coordination between the different Member States in terms of priority setting and conservation burden sharing.
In the first reporting period NaturaConnect developed the first set of guidelines for assessing and planning ecological connectivity projects at multiple scales and for different purposes, to support administrations and private initiatives implementing connectivity projects.
NaturaConnect have produced another set of policy briefs that by the end of 2023 are in the final draft stage and summarise a review of available instruments to fund the creation and management of protected areas as well as ecological connectivity projects in Europe.
In the first reporting period NaturaConnect developed the first set of guidelines for assessing and planning ecological connectivity projects at multiple scales and for different purposes, to support administrations and private initiatives implementing connectivity projects.
NaturaConnect have produced another set of policy briefs that by the end of 2023 are in the final draft stage and summarise a review of available instruments to fund the creation and management of protected areas as well as ecological connectivity projects in Europe.