Water-based solutions for carbon storage, people and wilderness

WaterLANDS (Water-based solutions for carbon storage, people and wilderness) is an ambitious project to tackle largescale restoration of Europe’s wetlands, with €23 million of funding from the EU Horizon 2020 Programme Green Deal. It will restore wetland sites across Europe which have been decimated by human activity and lay the foundations for scalable protection across much wider areas. WaterLANDS will undertake hands-on restoration of specific wetland sites, covering an initial 10,500 ha, and create best practice models that can be applied to wetland restoration at other sites. By engaging with local communities and stakeholders, the project will ensure that wetland restoration results not only in environmental gains, but also social and economic benefits for the communities involved.

The Succow Foundation is involved in WaterLANDS workpackage 3 "Aligning governance" which aims to enable policy and governance framework for upscaling restoration of wetlands and coastal ecosystems in Europe. It will review best practice and draw lessons from the existing sites and previous projects before examining the governance situation at sites the project focusses on. Based on its assessment, it will provide specific guidance on a framework for governance and associated measures to support the pre-requisites needed for restoration and to maximise stakeholder participation. It will propose transformative roadmaps and advocacy tools for decision-makers and practitioners in ecological restoration and contribute to the achievement of international targets such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs 2030), the EU Green Deal including the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and EU commitments to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, emphasising the contribution of restoration.