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  1. An institution, body, office or agency established by or based on the Treaty on European Union and the Treaties establishing the European Communities.

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Call key data

Projects on Legislative and Policy Priorities in the fields of Nature & Biodiversity and Circular Economy & Quality of Life - Preserving primary and old-growth forest in critical regions of Europe through mapping and awareness raising

Funding Program

LIFE - sub-programme “Nature and Biodiversity”

Call number

LIFE-2026-PLP-NAT-ENV

deadlines

Opening
21.04.2026

Deadline
22.09.2026 17:00

Funding rate

90%

Call budget

€ 1,500,000.00

Estimated EU contribution per project

€ 1,500,000.00

Link to the call

ec.europa.eu

Link to the submission

ec.europa.eu

Call content

short description

The main objective of the project selected under this specific priority is to support efforts related to the protection of primary and old-growth forests, in line with the EU commitment to strictly protect these forests by 2030, as stated in the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and confirmed by the Council in October 2020.

Call objectives

The project will contribute to the implementation of the Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR). The NRR obliges Member States to restore protected forest habitats to good condition and improve a range of biodiversity-related indicators such as “deadwood volumes” or “presence of large and old trees”. Protection of primary and old-growth forests can contribute substantially to both of these objectives.

Primary and old-growth forests are some of the EU’s richest ecosystems. They store significant carbon stocks and are of paramount importance for biodiversity and the provision of multiple ecosystem services. They provide a habitat for many of the EU’s endangered and endemic species and are also prime examples of our natural heritage. In the EU today, these forest areas are rare, often small, and fragmented, representing around 3% of EU’s forest area.

The project’s geographical scope should focus on the critical regions with the highest representation of such forests in the EU, namely the Boreal region, Romania and Bulgaria.

More specifically, the project will support national actions by:

  1. Developing support tools and methods for mapping of primary and old-growth forests in those forest habitats and forest types where sound science-based approaches are currently missing or are not fully developed. The methodologies must be in line with Commission’s Guidelines for Defining, Mapping, Monitoring and Strictly Protecting EU Primary and Old-Growth Forests. The project will focus on critical regions with the highest representation of such forests in the EU, namely the Boreal region, Romania and Bulgaria.
  2. Demonstrating cost-effective mapping of primary and old-growth forests in the identified forest types and regions, including with the use of remote sensing technology and ground surveys.
  3. Promoting understanding and application of the methodologies and the mapping work with the critical stakeholders in the region, i.e. national and local authorities, forest managers and civil society.
  4. Exploring and testing funding, measures and tools that can facilitate long-term protection of the mapped forests, including the use of voluntary market mechanisms such as nature credits.

This specific priority is aligned with the goal of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and EU Forest Strategy for 2030 of defining, mapping, monitoring and strictly protecting all the EU’s remaining primary and old-growth forests by 2030, further specified in Commission’s Guidelines for Defining, Mapping, Monitoring and Strictly Protecting EU Primary and Old-Growth Forests.

This project should build on the results and tools provided by the LIFE Prognoses project. More specifically, it should extend that project’s work on the methodologies for mapping of temperate beech forests and extend it to other critical forest types and regions.

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Expected effects and impacts

It is expected that the project will have a substantial impact on ensuring the identification of additional (i.e. not yet identified or protected) areas of primary and old-growth forest in the relevant forest types and on laying the groundwork for the protection of these areas, in particular in terms of:

  • Established cooperation between the critical stakeholders;
  • Having a roadmap in place for protection and, where relevant, funding of additional areas, developed in cooperation with the stakeholders

Expected results

The project must include the following activities:

  1. Development of support tools and methods (e.g. thresholds and identification criteria) based on desk research and ground surveys in model primary and old-growth forests of at least two relevant forest types;
  2. Demonstration of mapping of the primary and old-growth forests based on the methodologies developed under point 1, covering the regions with the highest representation of such forests in the EU, namely the Boreal region, and Romania and Bulgaria.
  3. Awareness-raising and training campaigns of stakeholders in the relevant countries to promote further applications of the developed methods and tools.
  4. Small-scale demonstration of a funding model for long-term protection of a selected primary or old-growth forest. This activity must start by exploring and analyzing different funding models based on relevant research (including, but not limited to EU Horizon projects), including the use of voluntary market mechanisms such as nature credits. The most suitable funding model must then be applied through a small-scale demonstration pilot.

Activities described above must be implemented with the involvement of competent authorities (national, regional or local) from the target regions. Activities under points 2 to 4 should be implemented with the appropriate participation of forest owners and civil society organisations.

The following outputs are expected:

  • Report and guidance on the developed tools and methods.
  • Online map(s) and the corresponding shapefile showing the identified primary and old-growth forest areas as part of the mapping demonstration.
  • Report on the awareness raising and training campaigns carried out.
  • Report on the small-scale demonstration pilot. This report must include recommendations on how to upscale the demonstrated funding model to other forest types and regions.

The material developed by the project must be in English, and translation in at least two other EU languages corresponding to the target regions is recommended to help country-specific practitioners use it. The material developed must be in formats suitable for being accessible online. It must also be suitable to fit in dedicated DG ENV geospatial infrastructure for ensuring the continuation of its use after the end of the project.

It is recommended that the project consortium includes:

  • relevant research organisations in the targeted countries or wider biogeographical region;
  • competent authorities in the countries where the demonstration of mapping takes place, as referred to in point 2.

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Eligibility Criteria

Regions / countries for funding

EU Member States, Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT)
Moldova (Moldova), Iceland (Ísland), Montenegro (Црна Гора), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Ukraine (Україна)

eligible entities

Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)

Mandatory partnership

No

Project Partnership

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

  • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
    • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
    • non-EU countries:
  • the coordinator must be established in an eligible country

other eligibility criteria

Specific cases

Exceptional funding — Entities from other countries (not listed above) are exceptionally eligible, if the granting authority considers their participation essential for the implementation of the action (see work programme).

Natural persons — Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of self-employed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).

International organisations — International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.

Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.

EU bodies — EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.

Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’.

Countries currently negotiating association agreements — Beneficiaries from countries with ongoing negotiations for participating in the programme (see list of participating countries above) may participate in the call and can sign grants if the negotiations are concluded before grant signature and if the association covers the call (i.e. is retroactive and covers both the part of the programme and the year when the call was launched).

EU restrictive measures — Special rules apply for entities subject to EU restrictive measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU). Such entities are not eligible to participate in any capacity, including as beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, subcontractors or recipients of financial support to third parties (if any).

EU conditionality measures — Special rules apply for entities subject to measures adopted on the basis of EU Regulation 2020/2092. Such entities are not eligible to participate in any funded role (beneficiaries, affiliated entities, subcontractors, recipients of financial support to third parties, etc.). Currently such measures are in place for Hungarian public interest trusts established under the Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity they maintain (see Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506, as of 16 December 2022).

Additional information

Topics

Administration & Governance, Institutional Capacity & Cooperation, 
Agriculture & Forestry, Fishery, Food, Soil quality, 
Air Quality, Biodiversity & Environment, Climate & Climate Change, Water quality & management, 
Digitalisation, Digital Society, ICT

Relevance for EU Macro-Region

EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region

UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)

project duration

36 months

Additional Information

Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the Calls for proposals section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.

Proposals (including annexes and supporting documents) must be submitted using the forms provided inside the Submission System (NOT the documents available on the Topic page — they are only for information).

Project acronym — Your project acronym must include the word LIFE.

Proposals must be complete and contain all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents:

  • Application Form Part A — contains administrative information about the participants (future coordinator, beneficiaries and affiliated entities) and the summarised budget for the project (to be filled in directly online)
  • Application Form Part B — contains the technical description of the project (template to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed, assembled and re-uploaded)
  • Part C — contains additional project data and the project’s contribution to EU programme key performance indicators (to be filled in directly online)
  • mandatory annexes and supporting documents (templates to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed, assembled and re-uploaded):
    • detailed budget tabl
    • participant information (including previous projects, if any)

Proposals are limited to maximum 50 pages (Part B).

Call documents

Call Document LIFE-2026-PLPCall Document LIFE-2026-PLP(773kB)

Contact

LIFE Programme NCPs
Website

European Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) - LIFE
Website

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