Project description
Rewilding for a climate-neutral and resilient European shoreline
In European coastal zones, vast intertidal soft sediment seascapes, which play a crucial role in carbon neutrality, climate resilience and biodiversity, face a significant threat: fragmented habitats and a decline in essential ecosystem services. With this in mind, the EU-funded REWRITE project brings together experts from 11 EU countries, the UK, Canada and the US to address the ecological and social challenges surrounding the rewilding of intertidal seascapes. Specifically, REWRITE will identify the drivers and barriers of rewilding these seascapes in the context of climate change, engage stakeholders to co-design future scenarios, upscale rewilding strategies across Europe, and develop tools for ecological and societal co-benefits. The overall aim is to restore harmony between nature and society.
Objective
Within European coastal zones, intertidal areas consisting of soft sediment emerging during each low tide, form complex seascapes covering more than 10 000 km2 along the 35 000 km of the tidal coastline. These habitats provide multiple ecosystem services with great potential to cope with the biodiversity-climate crisis by contributing to carbon neutrality, climate resilience and biodiversity support. Nevertheless, these seascapes continue to be fragmented and threatened, resulting in a decrease of their provision of services. Rewilding, a nature-based solution, is a new concept for seascapes to reverse this situation and to “let (again) Nature do the job” ensuring climate resilience, biodiversity support and societal benefit of the future European shoreline.
Within a network of 10 demonstrators and 25 partners from 11 European states, including 8 with a tidal coast, plus the UK, Canada and the USA, REWRITE will bring an interdisciplinary consortium of natural and coastal environment and social sciences and humanities experts to address the current ecological and social challenges regarding intertidal seascape rewilding.
Expanding innovative approaches, REWRITE will focus on the climate-biodiversity-society nexus, to reach 4 specific objectives: -identify environmental, social and cultural drivers and barrier parameters to rewild intertidal sediment seascapes within the context of climate change; -strongly engage stakeholders to achieve a step-change in their appreciation of the natural function of these seascapes and integrate their interests within a co-design of scenario for future European shoreline; -estimate and upscale trajectories of intertidal seascapes from the local to the European level, following rewilding (passive), restoring (active), “business as usual” or “do nothing” options; -establish tools and methods for successful rewilding to ensure a high ecological and societal co-benefit/low-cost ratio for a climate-neutral and resilient European shoreline.
Fields of science
- social sciencessociologygovernance
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencessustainability sciences
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiodiversity conservation
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
44000 Nantes
France
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Participants (19)
72085 Le Mans
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30021 Nimes
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49035 Angers Cedex 01
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14032 Caen Cedex 5
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17031 La Rochelle
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75794 Paris
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Legal entity other than a subcontractor which is affiliated or legally linked to a participant. The entity carries out work under the conditions laid down in the Grant Agreement, supplies goods or provides services for the action, but did not sign the Grant Agreement. A third party abides by the rules applicable to its related participant under the Grant Agreement with regard to eligibility of costs and control of expenditure.
75015 PARIS 15
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5230 Odense M
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3526 KV Utrecht
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7522 NB Enschede
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9000 Gent
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3810-193 Aveiro
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11003 Cadiz
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28006 Madrid
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28359 Bremen
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D02 CX56 DUBLIN 2
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1031 Budapest
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
176 71 ATHINA
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Partners (5)
B3H 3C3 Halifax
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E4L1E4 Sackville
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94542 Hayward
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CO4 3SQ Colchester
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HU6 7RX Hull
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