SERE 2026: LifeWatch ERIC attends the European Conference on Ecological Restoration

SERE Conference 2026

Last week, members of LifeWatch ERIC Jorge Osman and Cristina Huertas-Olivares attended the SERE 2026 Conference, the 15th edition of the European Conference on Ecological Restoration, organised by the University of Brest’s Geoarchitecture Laboratory in close collaboration with SER-Europe and the ‘REVER’ network.

The main objective of this event was to share knowledge and strengthen links between stakeholders in ecological restoration, with a focus on ecological, social, and political considerations.

The conference tackled all aspects of restoration, across different types of ecosystems and territories, including some usually less well-integrated topics, such as the restoration of ecological networks (particularly dark infrastructure) and marine ecosystems.

Moreover, the scientific programme dedicated particular attention to the restoration of wetlands and coastal ecosystems, the application of European nature restoration legislation and the implementation of National Restoration Plans.

These topics are particularly relevant to the RECUP-DAS project, which aims to support the restoration and sustainable management of areas affected by mining activities, through an integrated approach that combines ecological restoration, monitoring, data management, and decision-support tools.

In this context, the participation in SERE 2026 provided an opportunity for LifeWatch ERIC members involved in the project to follow the latest developments, experiences and approaches in ecological restoration, and to exchange knowledge with researchers working across different ecosystems.

Jorge Osman, Scientific Project Manager, and member of the RECUP-DAS Project, attended the conference in Brest to learn from the international experiences presented during the event, including a specialised course on “Adaptive Restoration Planning Using DSS-AWERE”. The knowledge and methodologies gained through this training may prove valuable for the RECUP-DAS project, in particular in relation to the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of future ecological restoration actions in the areas affected by mining activities.

Attending SERE 2026 and the specialised training provided an opportunity to broaden the project team’s knowledge, explore relevant approaches, and strengthen connections with the wider ecological restoration community.

RECUP-DAS is co-funded by the European Union through the Andalusia ERDF Programme 2021–2027.

For more information, visit: https://sere2026.sciencesconf.org/?lang=en

Wetland restoration projects join forces and speak to policy: read the joint White Paper

wetlands projects joint white paper

Collaboration is at the hearth of real impact in research. It is especially encouraging when members of research projects work together, combining their expertise, scientific evidence, and practical knowledge to deliver a shared message with one strong, science-based voice.

We are glad to announce the release of a joint, landmark white paper from a group of EU-funded projects on wetlands restoration: RESTORE4Cs, ALFAWetlands, REWET, WET HORIZONS, ForPet, Wetland4Change, and Palus Demos.

The paper is called “Prioritising Wetland Conservation and Restoration in Europe | United voices for more policy impact”. It collects scientific evidence, policy analysis, and direct experience from research actions across Europe, with the shared objective to push for urgent and coordinated action to halt wetland degradation, and accelerate its restoration.

In particular, drawing on evidence gathered from the collaborating projects, the white paper has identified four priority areas for policy action:

  • Improving policy coherence across sectors
  • Mobilising public and private financing
  • Enabling landscape scale implementation
  • Strengthening monitoring systems and stakeholder participation

You can read more information and download the full document here:

https://www.restore4cs.eu/sister-projects-release-joint-white-paper-calling-for-stronger-eu-action-to-protect-and-restore-europes-wetlands

Participating projects:

Guiding national coastal wetland restoration efforts: the RESTORE4Cs Implementation Roadmap

RESTORE4Cs-Implementation-Roadmap

RESTORE4Cs is the EU-funded project that supports the implementation of Climate and Biodiversity policies in the context of the European Green Deal, by assessing the effectiveness of restoration actions through models and integrative tools.

The project has recently reached the end of its mandate, and has published an Implementation Roadmap as one of its final results. This roadmap guides the design and planning of national coastal wetland restoration efforts to help countries meet the obligations of EU environmental and climate policy processes. These include the development of National Restoration Plans under the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, national commitments under the Ramsar Convention, and reporting obligations on wetland emissions and removals under the EU LULUCF Regulation.

The plan relies on the latest scientific knowledge, integrating RESTORE4Cs tools and methodologies into a decision-support framework. It also has the advantage of following a very practical, step-by-step approach, that takes users from a guided baseline assessment, through to the planning and implementation of restoration actions.

You can download the full document here: https://www.restore4cs.eu/restore4cs-implementation-roadmap-to-guide-national-action

The RESTORE4Cs Spatial Decision-Support Toolbox that will help prioritise coastal wetlands restoration in Europe

RESTORE4Cs Policy Brief 10

The collection of multi-language Policy Briefs from the RESTORE4Cs Project (https://www.restore4cs.eu/resources/policy-briefs), provides best practices and science-based knowledge on European coastal wetlands restoration, gathered across 6 case studies and over three years of project.

Policy Brief #10 supports the prioritisation of coastal wetland restoration in Europe, by providing a Spatial Decision-Support Toolbox that can inform decisions and help develop well-defined restoration measures.

In fact, what is essential in order to prioritise wetlands as restoration objectives, is spatially explicit information about their status, as requested under the Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR). The Toolbox offers a harmonised, science-based, user-friendly solution, that integrates ecological, climatic, and socio-economic data.

Through the use of this Toolbox, consisting of a geo-analytical platform accessible online, it will be easier to identify areas where restoration is most needed, and to develop replicable and spatially explicit methods for resource allocation.

To read more details about this tools, and the recommendations for Policy Makers, download the full document at this link: https://www.restore4cs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/EN_Policy-Brief-10-v4_Final.pdf

Assessing coastal wetlands and their role in climate mitigation: Policy Briefs #8 and #9 from RESTORE4Cs

RESTORE4Cs Policy Briefs 8-9

The collection of multi-language Policy Briefs from the RESTORE4Cs Project (https://www.restore4cs.eu/resources/policy-briefs), provides best practices and science-based knowledge on European coastal wetlands restoration, gathered through the three years of project, and across 6 case studies.

In this article we talk about Policy Brief #8 and #9.

Policy Brief #8 “Advancing a coherent framework for assessing European coastal wetland condition”, addresses the lack of a clear definition of coastal wetlands, a shortcoming that results in these areas often being overlooked within policy frameworks. The document advances a harmonised definition of coastal wetlands, aligned with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971), that captures the full land-sea continuum where salt, brackish, and fresh waters interact.

Moreover, building on that definition, it provides a harmonised spatial mapping approach, to delineate coastal wetlands across Europe, establishing a consistent EU-wide baseline for monitoring their extent and condition.

You can download the full document in English here: https://www.restore4cs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/EN_Policy-Brief-8-v5_Final.pdf

Policy Brief #9 “How can coastal wetland restoration mitigate climate change? What we know and what is still unclear”, proposes coastal wetland restoration as a promising NbS (Nature-based Solution) for climate change mitigation. In fact, restored wetlands act as net carbon sinks, increasing carbon stocks in plant biomass and soil, without a corresponding increase in GHG emissions. At the same time, it highlights inconsistencies in the availability of data about carbon stocks and GHG emissions across countries and wetland types. Freshwater wetlands and transitional waters in Europe are still underrepresented in empirical evidence.

The document also highlights that the focus is primarily on carbon stocks, rather than GHG emissions, while the reporting of GHG flux data is not yet standardised.

Read and download the document here to get the key policy recommendations: https://www.restore4cs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/EN_Policy-Brief-9-v7_Final.pdf

RESTORE4Cs releases two new Policy Briefs on wetlands restoration

RESTORE4Cs Policy Brief 4-5

The Horizon Europe RESTORE4Cs project has released its 4th and 5th Policy Briefs:

  • Policy Brief #4: “Beyond public funds: diversifying financing for wetland restoration”, highlighting the urgent need to complement public funding with innovative financial instruments to ensure long-term wetland restoration in Europe.
  • Policy Brief #5: “Advancing Policy Integration Across Mediterranean Countries: Aligning with the Barcelona Convention and International Commitments Through a Common Evidence-Based Strategy”, promoting a harmonised set of indicators and metrics for evidence-based coastal wetlands protection strategies.

These documents provide funding entities and policymakers with clear, well-summarised knowledge from real studies, helping them understand the importance of taking specific actions.

To start with, wetlands provide essential services such as flood protection, clean water, and carbon storage, to name a few. Despite their importance, they still receive less than 9% of global nature-based solution funding. The RESTORE4Cs Case Pilots presented in Policy Brief 4 show that long-term management, monitoring, and maintenance remain severely underfunded, with public funds usually covering only the initial restoration costs.

Moreover, the ongoing loss of wetlands highlights the urgent need for effective policies to protect and restore these vital ecosystems. We need a framework that allows for consistent assessments of their health and status, guides adaptive management practices, and ensures that conservation and restoration efforts align with regional and international objectives.

For this reason, Policy Brief 5 explores a full set of performance indicators and metrics.
These key indicators will serve as a strategic planning framework to help countries plan, implement, and evaluate the impacts of their actions. They establish reference points to measure national efforts, identify areas for improvement, and support data-driven decision-making.

Read the full documents on RESTORE4Cs to learn more about the key recommendations and solutions proposed by the partners:

RESTORE4Cs issues Policy Brief on the positive climate impact of coastal wetlands

Restore4Cs policy brief news image

RESTORE4Cs (https://www.restore4cs.eu/) is the EU-funded project dedicated to climate change, biodiversity loss and habitat degradation, focusing on the sustainable management of European wetlands. These natural coastal areas of saltwater and freshwater play a key role in achieving the EU objectives regarding climate neutrality, biodiversity protection, zero-pollution, flood protection, and the circular economy. 

Led by the University of Aveiro (Portugal), the RESTORE4Cs consortium aims to assess the role of restoration action on wetlands’ capacity, through an integrative socio-ecological systems approach.

Within the scope of this objective, on 9 September 2024, the project launched its first Policy Brief, which highlights the aspect of Greenhouse Gas emissions. 

European coastal wetlands have the capacity to reduce emissions consistently, through the so-called “carbon sequestration”, which generally refers to the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

In the case of wetlands, this is made possible thanks to their vegetation, and via sedimentation processes: they can store large amounts of organic carbon in their soil, due to their rapid growth and slow decomposition rates. Additionally, coastal wetlands generally release lower levels of methane compared to other types of wetlands. Moreover, they help trap organic particles carried by the flooding water, increasing the levels of organic carbon in the soil and forming organic-rich reservoirs called “blue carbon sinks”. 

Given their importance in our ecosystem, it is not surprising that Europe is investing in the protection of these precious environments: just a few weeks ago, at the end of August, RESTORE4Cs had joined three akin projects (ALFAwetlands, REWET and WET HORIZONS) in the SERE2024 Conference, an event entirely dedicated to Ecological Restoration. 

With the Policy Brief, authored by members of the European Topic Center, University of Malaga and University of Valencia (Spain), and the German Ecologic Institute, the project reinforces this message, by highlighting some key takeaways:

  1. the important role of wetlands as natural carbon stores
  2. the need to preserve the ones in good status, and urgently restore the endangered ones, as a cost-effective climate mitigation strategy
  3. the use of carbon certification schemes as additional tools to unlock new financial resources.
  4. the promotion of incentives for climate-friendly companies

You can read or download the full document at this link: https://www.restore4cs.eu/restore4cs-1st-policy-brief/