Call: Restoration of natural wetlands, peatlands and floodplains as a strategy for fast mitigation benefits; pathways, trade-offs and co-benefits

Expected Outcome

Project results are expected to contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

• Support the EU Nature Restoration Plan of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.
• Improved assessment of the added value of wetland, peatland and floodplain restoration approaches under different scenarios and monitor their benefits and trade-offs in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, a wide range of ecosystem services and biodiversity.
• Improve the knowledge base on the status of European wetlands beyond the current state of the art on extent, location, condition, spatio-temporal trends, type of management and pressures (including climate change), as well as restoration potential to understand their capacity as carbon sinks or GHG sources to support climate mitigation and adaptation plans/solutions.
• Introduction of the quantified greenhouse gas abatement potential of wetland restoration in models and scenarios, for climate and biodiversity.
• Analyse the degree to which these approaches related to wetlands are affected by different scenarios of climate change (i.e. effectivity under global warming of 2°C and higher).
• Support the implementation of the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation with respect to the inclusion of wetland restoration activities by developing robust and transparent methodologies, data provision and analysis.
• Contribute to the evidence on ecosystem services provided by restored wetlands and their long-term management as an investment with significant net societal benefits.
• Contribute to scientific assessments such as the IPCC, IPBES and International Resource Panel reports.

Scope:

Projects are expected to assess the current extent and state of European wetlands, their current and potential GHG profile (with or without protection/restoration measures) and their medium to long-term mitigation capacity through restoration or other measures. As a minimum, the assessment should take into account key greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4 and N2O), the carbon value of services (such as production) in the baseline (e.g., food production) and restoration scenarios (e.g., paludiculture or non-productive uses, like agritourism) and estimate the abatement cost for different policy-relevant time periods. Assessments should therefore look at assessing any trade-offs of restoring wetlands primarily for climate and biodiversity benefits with the delivery of their wide range of other services, and on methods to avoid, and if not possible, to mitigate them.

Projects are expected to develop or identify workable tools and approaches for the sound estimation of GHG performance as well as impacts on biodiversity and a wide range of ecosystem services. The GHG emission during restoration (e.g. due to disturbance of soils, dredging of sediments, methane from rewetting) should be considered, including trade-offs and benefits of passive restoration and following succession of water bodies. The evidence collected may contribute to the related policies, like LULUCF, and the implementation of the Biodiversity Strategy commitments.

Projects are expected to go beyond the state-of-the-art of the different restoration and management techniques and knowledge and provide guides and recommendations about the scaling up of the solutions. In particular, the projects should capitalise on the evidence provided by LIFE, Horizon 2020 and ERDF projects addressing wetland, floodplains and peatland restoration and protection.

Actions should envisage clustering activities with other relevant selected for cross-projects co-operation, consultations and joint activities on cross-cutting issues and share of results as well as participating in joint meetings and communication events. To this end, proposals should provide for a dedicated work package and/or task, and earmark the appropriate resources accordingly.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

Cross-cutting Priorities:

• Socio-economic science and humanities

eligible non-EU countries:

• countries associated to Horizon Europe

• low-and middle-income countries

Legal entities which are established in countries not listed above will be eligible for funding if provided for in the specific call conditions, or if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority.

Specific cases:

• Affiliated entities - Affiliated entities are eligible for funding if they are established in one of the countries listed above.
• EU bodies - Legal entities created under EU law may also be eligible to receive funding, unless their basic act states otherwise.
• International organisations - International European research organisations are eligible to receive funding. Unless their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority, other international organisations are not eligible to receive funding. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country are eligible to receive funding for ‘Training and mobility’actions and when provided for in the specific call conditions.

Unless otherwise provided for in the specific call conditions , legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes:

• at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State;and
• at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.

Proposal page limits and layout:

The application form will have two parts:

• Part A to be filled in directly online  (administrative information, summarised budget, call-specific questions, etc.)
• Part B to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system

Page limit - Part B: 45 pages