Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REWRITE (REWilding and Restoration of InterTidal sediment Ecosystems for carbon sequestration, climate adaptation and biodiversity support)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-10-01 bis 2025-03-31
European coastal ecosystems—including seagrass meadows, salt marshes and mudflats—are increasingly threatened by climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, and human development. These fragile environments provide essential ecosystem services: they support biodiversity, regulate climate and water cycles, store carbon, protect our coast against extreme events, and offer cultural and recreational value. Restoring them is key to enhancing ecosystem resilience and securing benefits for both nature and people.
REWRITE aims to develop innovative approaches and nature-based solutions for the rewilding of coastal ecosystems. It seeks to align environmental priorities—such as carbon sequestration, climate adaptation, and biodiversity recovery—with societal needs and uses.
To do so, REWRITE addresses four major challenges:
1/ Reducing uncertainty about future ecosystem trajectories under different scenarios—restoration, rewilding, “do nothing”, or business-as-usual—by improving our fragmented ecological and social understanding.
2/ Assessing cascading effects of climate change and biodiversity loss across scales to better support local natural capital and shoreline resilience.
3/ Understanding societal engagement with rewilding, including how people perceive and negotiate trade-offs between ecological restoration and competing land-use pressures.
4/ Transferring the concept of rewilding—originally applied to terrestrial ecosystems—to coastal contexts, where it remains largely undefined in research and policy.
The project draws on a broad network of expertise, spanning natural and social sciences and humanities, and works across ten demonstration sites from Denmark to Spain, and USA and Canada. By integrating natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, and engaging with local and European actors, REWRITE aims to shape visions of rewilded, resilient, and equitable European coastal areas.
REWRITE aims to develop innovative approaches and nature-based solutions for the rewilding of coastal ecosystems. It seeks to align environmental priorities—such as carbon sequestration, climate adaptation, and biodiversity recovery—with societal needs and uses.
To do so, REWRITE addresses four major challenges:
1/ Reducing uncertainty about future ecosystem trajectories under different scenarios—restoration, rewilding, “do nothing”, or business-as-usual—by improving our fragmented ecological and social understanding.
2/ Assessing cascading effects of climate change and biodiversity loss across scales to better support local natural capital and shoreline resilience.
3/ Understanding societal engagement with rewilding, including how people perceive and negotiate trade-offs between ecological restoration and competing land-use pressures.
4/ Transferring the concept of rewilding—originally applied to terrestrial ecosystems—to coastal contexts, where it remains largely undefined in research and policy.
The project draws on a broad network of expertise, spanning natural and social sciences and humanities, and works across ten demonstration sites from Denmark to Spain, and USA and Canada. By integrating natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, and engaging with local and European actors, REWRITE aims to shape visions of rewilded, resilient, and equitable European coastal areas.
In the first 18 months, REWRITE made significant progress in understanding and supporting coastal rewilding through five key areas:
Reconstructing change: Historical and current data from 10 demonstrators in Europe and beyond revealed how biodiversity, carbon storage, and coastal resilience have evolved, highlighting key ecological and social drivers, as well as governance challenges.
Building shared knowledge: Through our Multi-Actor Laboratories, connected between local and European levels (i.e the "MAL-loop"), we’ve initiated inclusive spaces where communities, scientists, and institutions co-design rewilding strategies and visions adapted to local and European contexts.
Scaling up through modelling: We’ve begun mapping and modelling different future scenarios (rewilding, business-as-usual, do-nothing), using Earth observation tools to assess impacts on biodiversity, climate resilience, and ecosystem services at local and European scales.
Developing practical tools: We’ve identified key ecosystem services (e.g. carbon, flood protection) and are developing protocols to monitor them efficiently in the field and via remote sensing—laying the groundwork for cost-effective, evidence-based restoration.
Framing coastal rewilding: We’ve co-developed a working definition of “coastal rewilding” as the reintroduction of natural processes and governance transformations, not as a return to the past but as a way to reimagine human–nature relations in dynamic coastal systems.
Reconstructing change: Historical and current data from 10 demonstrators in Europe and beyond revealed how biodiversity, carbon storage, and coastal resilience have evolved, highlighting key ecological and social drivers, as well as governance challenges.
Building shared knowledge: Through our Multi-Actor Laboratories, connected between local and European levels (i.e the "MAL-loop"), we’ve initiated inclusive spaces where communities, scientists, and institutions co-design rewilding strategies and visions adapted to local and European contexts.
Scaling up through modelling: We’ve begun mapping and modelling different future scenarios (rewilding, business-as-usual, do-nothing), using Earth observation tools to assess impacts on biodiversity, climate resilience, and ecosystem services at local and European scales.
Developing practical tools: We’ve identified key ecosystem services (e.g. carbon, flood protection) and are developing protocols to monitor them efficiently in the field and via remote sensing—laying the groundwork for cost-effective, evidence-based restoration.
Framing coastal rewilding: We’ve co-developed a working definition of “coastal rewilding” as the reintroduction of natural processes and governance transformations, not as a return to the past but as a way to reimagine human–nature relations in dynamic coastal systems.
REWRITE advances coastal rewilding science and practice by developing interdisciplinary, context-sensitive approaches to intertidal soft sediment (ISS) seascapes. The project lays the groundwork for future restoration efforts through three key achievements:
REWRITE has completed the first European-wide gap analysis of ISS ecosystem services and functions across 10 demonstrator sites, revealing critical data gaps. Initial reconstructions of environmental trajectories and protocols for assessing carbon, biodiversity, and protection services are in development. REWRITE also introduced a working definition and typology of coastal rewilding, adapting the terrestrial paradigm to coastal realities.
Joint fieldwork and mesocosm experiments are quantifying rewilding impacts on biodiversity, carbon, coastal protection and resilience. WP3 also explores cultural heritage and perceptions of wilderness using shared tools across demonstrators. Remote sensing and modelling are being combined to project future ecosystem trajectories under various scenarios.
The "MAL-loop" beeween local and European stakeholders have been lauched to co-design rewilding scenarios at local and global scales. Early work integrates system thinking and social innovation, and supports cross-WP dialogue on drivers of change, values, and decision-support.
REWRITE go beyond the state of the art by:
Structuring integrated, site-specific knowledge on ISS ecosystems;
Operationalising rewilding as a dynamic, inclusive nature-based solution for coastal ecosystems;
Advancing collaborative approach for restoration for a co-benefit Nature-Human.
Key needs for future uptake:
Long-term impact monitoring (towards 2050);
Open, harmonised tools for replication and comparison;
Sustained stakeholder engagement to secure social relevance;
Policy alignment to anchor rewilding within NRR implementation;
Broader valuation frameworks to capture relational and non-monetary values.
REWRITE has completed the first European-wide gap analysis of ISS ecosystem services and functions across 10 demonstrator sites, revealing critical data gaps. Initial reconstructions of environmental trajectories and protocols for assessing carbon, biodiversity, and protection services are in development. REWRITE also introduced a working definition and typology of coastal rewilding, adapting the terrestrial paradigm to coastal realities.
Joint fieldwork and mesocosm experiments are quantifying rewilding impacts on biodiversity, carbon, coastal protection and resilience. WP3 also explores cultural heritage and perceptions of wilderness using shared tools across demonstrators. Remote sensing and modelling are being combined to project future ecosystem trajectories under various scenarios.
The "MAL-loop" beeween local and European stakeholders have been lauched to co-design rewilding scenarios at local and global scales. Early work integrates system thinking and social innovation, and supports cross-WP dialogue on drivers of change, values, and decision-support.
REWRITE go beyond the state of the art by:
Structuring integrated, site-specific knowledge on ISS ecosystems;
Operationalising rewilding as a dynamic, inclusive nature-based solution for coastal ecosystems;
Advancing collaborative approach for restoration for a co-benefit Nature-Human.
Key needs for future uptake:
Long-term impact monitoring (towards 2050);
Open, harmonised tools for replication and comparison;
Sustained stakeholder engagement to secure social relevance;
Policy alignment to anchor rewilding within NRR implementation;
Broader valuation frameworks to capture relational and non-monetary values.