Funding restoration in Europe

The ELSP is currently supporting land and seascape restoration across 20 countries in Europe. Throughout the past year, the ELSP continued to fund large scale land and seascape restoration, planning and development of restoration projects, science and monitoring, and community engagement activities such as artist residencies. Nine new Planning Grants were awarded to support preparatory work for landscape and seascape restoration initiatives.

The ELSP is supporting initiatives which may have visions that look decades, even hundreds of years into the future so financial sustainability is crucial. Since 2019, the ELSP has awarded US$49.94 million to 14 projects across Europe. These projects have used ELSP funds to further leverage an impressive US$36 million, meaning they can deliver more restoration on the ground. In the last year alone, projects have raised an additional US$7.95 million for restoration in their landscapes and seascapes from a range of sources including trusts, foundations, private enterprise, donations and public funds.

In 2023, nine Planning Grants were awarded to support preparatory work for landscape and seascape restoration initiatives, including field surveys, consultation, analysis, partnership building and participatory planning. These initiatives embrace a range of ecosystems including mountain ranges, coastal estuaries, river floodplains and grassland steppes. They involve a wide range of land tenure and partners working together across many sectors including nature conservation, forestry, agriculture, water, and energy with a mixture of complex institutional and ecological barriers to be overcome.

Tools and guidance were created for restoration projects interested in utilising voluntary carbon markets. This Advancing Restoration Knowledge (ARK) project, titled Understanding Voluntary Carbon Markets, also led a stakeholder workshop. Another ARK project developed tools and training on supporting Nature Positive Enterprises in landscapes. A new ARK project on best practices for integrating the sustainable trade in wild plants and fungi into landscape restoration was funded.

A Finance for Restoration taskforce has been created that will focus on exploring opportunities, challenges, and risks of increasing the flow of different sources of finance into ecosystem restoration in Europe. The taskforce, which is led by UNEP-WCMC and BirdLife International - Europe and Central Asia Office, will also consider existing and novel solutions for creating and strengthening an enabling policy environment for restoration at scale across Europe. They will do this by identifying policies that are relevant for financing restoration, especially private finance, and assess how those policies support or undermine restoration activities.

“At a time of doom, gloom, and downward trends, expanding the funding for restoration and supporting impactful projects on land and at sea is needed to bring optimism and momentum to a positive future for biodiversity and people.”

Berry Mulligan, ELSP Seascapes Programme Manager

Understanding voluntary carbon markets

An Advancing Restoration Knowledge (ARK) project led by UNEP examined opportunities and barriers to accessing voluntary carbon markets for European nature restoration projects. With over 80% of EU habitats in poor condition, it is estimated that it will cost more than EUR 8 billion a year to restore 30 per cent of habitats listed in the EU Habitats Directive by 2030. Finance from schemes such as carbon credits is therefore crucial for achieving UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and Paris Agreement goals but a range of barriers face restoration projects wishing to engage in carbon markets, including rigid methodologies and reputational risks. The Understanding Voluntary Carbon Markets project addresses these hurdles. A 2023 workshop facilitated discussions on shared risks, biodiversity importance, and new technologies across buyers and sellers of nature-based carbon credits and their intermediaries. Despite obstacles, optimism exists for Europe's carbon markets, with increased awareness of positive restoration impacts. The project created materials to guide restoration practitioners, emphasising collaboration for successful outcomes for people, nature, and climate.