Restoring landscapes for life

The Endangered Landscapes Programme is building a future in which landscapes are enriched with biodiversity, establishing resilient, more self-sustaining ecosystems that benefit both nature and people

Photo: Viktar Malyshchyc

Featured Project

Białowieża Forest

Extensive and ethereal, Białowieża (Beloveshskaya Pushcha) is one of Europe’s last great primary forests. The outstanding biodiversity value of this UNESCO World Heritage Site includes one-quarter of the world’s European bison among 59 mammal species plus an astonishing 12,000 invertebrate species. Following decades of exploitation and drainage in the Belarus part of the forest and recent controversial logging in Poland, however, Białowieża is under threat.

Building on experience from Belarus, the project will plan landscape-level restoration of the forest’s hydrology. It intends to adopt a transboundary approach to address the international stalemate over Poland’s intensive logging. The project envisages that returning groundwater to near-natural levels should enable the rewetting of forests, up to 20,000 ha of drained mires and formerly straightened riverbeds.

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Latest News

The rewards of nature restoration

Since 1990, our planet has lost over 80 million hectares of old-growth forest. 64% of the world’s wetlands have disappeared since 1900. And one million species are currently threatened with extinction. In Europe, nature is in serious, continuing decline. As much as 81% of the European Union’s habitats are in poor or bad condition. For too long, much of humankind has had an unsustainable relationship with nature. Destructive activities such as intensive farming, fishing and forestry has led to its degradation. The consequences are both severe and wide-ranging. The extreme degradation of nature is driving extinctions,…

12^th April 2021