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Restoration works: Seven years of change across Europe’s landscapes and seascapes
The first seven projects supported by the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme began in 2019, testing how large-scale restoration could be delivered across diverse landscapes and seascapes in Europe. More than five years later, they are providing valuable evidence of what recovery looks like in practice. From reconnecting waterways in the Danube Delta and restoring peatlands in the Scottish Highlands to supporting fish recovery along the coast of Türkiye, these projects are demonstrating how ecosystems can respond when pressures are reduced. As the Programme has grown to support 29 projects, the experiences and lessons from these first landscapes and seascapes continue to inform restoration efforts across Europe.
Over the coming months, the Restoration Works campaign will explore these landscapes and seascapes in more detail, drawing on the experience, evidence and outcomes that have emerged.
The return of the wild in Portugal’s Greater Côa Valley
When Marta Calix moved to Portugal’s Greater Côa Valley in 2019, she joined an ambitious effort to bring nature back across one of western Europe’s important wildlife corridors. Six years later, new rewilding areas have been established, natural grazing is returning and communities are finding ways to live alongside wildlife, including wolves. But restoring a landscape is about more than ecology. From building relationships with farmers and landowners to developing nature-based tourism and challenging policies that limit restoration, Marta reflects on what the past six years have taught her, and why recovery in the Greater Côa Valley is only just beginning.
