| Project name |
Climate-smart rewilding: ecological restoration for climate change mitigation, |
| Acronym | wildE |
| Project coordinator | INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE POUR L'AGRICULTURE, L'ALIMENTATION ET L'ENVIRONNEMENT (INRAE) |
| Project partner | Czech University of Life Science, Prague – Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences |
| Investigator | prof. Ing. Miroslav Svoboda, Ph.D. |
| Total budget | 8 555 016 EUR |
| Budget of FLD | 183 000 EUR |
| Implementation period | 1. 1. 2023 – 31. 12. 2026 |
| Name of programme | Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON) |
| More information: | Project website |
The European Union aims to reduce net carbon emissions by 55% in 2030, and become climate neutral by 2050. These goals can only be met if it boosts carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems, preferably while fostering socio-environmental co-benefits such as conserving biodiversity, adapting to climate change, and safeguarding socio-economic and cultural values. Both the IPCC and the IPBES have emphasised the great potential of ecosystem restoration and related nature-based solutions (NbS) for addressing the challenge.
WildE introduces ‘climate-smart rewilding’ as an innovative restoration approach to create climate benefits while also addressing other socioenvironmental needs. The project gathers a multi-disciplinary team of leading European experts to develop a research and innovation programme addressing the climate-biodiversity nexus in tight association with the socio-economic dimension of large-scale restoration. The team will also project scenarios to assess Europe’s rewilding potentials under diverse land-use and climate change futures.
WildE will
- generate comprehensive case-comparative data on European rewilding trends and outcomes;
- quantify the net social, economic and environmental benefits, synergies and trade-offs related to rewilding and alternative land-use options;
- develop cutting-edge projections for future land use and climate scenarios;
- develop tangible and readily accessible decision-support and management guidelines to enable policymakers, conservation managers, communities, and the private sector to co-construct climate-smart rewilding strategies as effective NbS for meeting the EU’s climate and biodiversity targets.
Embedded within an ambitiousstakeholder engagement, communications programme, wildE research will enable climate-smart rewilding as operational large-scale NbS to effectively foster the natural capacity of Europe’s ecosystems for climate change mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity support.