New funding leveraged to support landscape and seascape restoration

Find out how we monitor impact across our projects

$56m

of co-funding secured across the Programme.

This KPI records the amount of additional funding leveraged by projects to support further restoration, with Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme funds often used as co-finance.

The impact that our projects are delivering, and the quality assurance provided by the programme assists them to raise additional funding. Sources are diverse, including trusts and foundations, multi-lateral funding agencies such as the European Union and the private sector.

Cumulative amount of funding leveraged

How this performance indicator is measured

This performance indicator is evidenced through grant agreements and donor reports.

Why this is important

Landscape and seascape restoration could make a significant contribution to restoring nature and achieving Global Biodiversity Framework targets, however the funding required is estimated to be an order of magnitude higher than what is currently available (Funding Ecosystem Restoration in Europe, 2020). Securing long-term funding from a diverse range of sources, including climate finance, is essential if restoration is to be achieved at the scale required.

Policy relevance

Among the Global Biodiversity Framework’s key elements are four goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030. Target 19 is to mobilise US$200 billion per year for biodiversity from all sources including US$30 billion from international finance.

The EU is contributing to this target through the LIFE funding instrument which has a total funding of 5.43 billion Euro for the period 2021 – 2027, with 1.94 billion Euro reserved for the field of climate action. However, this still falls short of the funding needed to restore Europe’s degraded landscapes and seascapes.

Investment in restoration makes good economic sense. Studies have shown that the financial benefits of restoration in Europe, from things like enhanced food production, carbon sequestration, and storage, as well as improved water quality, are on average 8-10 times greater than the initial investment costs.

Project examples

Leveraging LIFE funds

There are several Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme projects which are also benefitting from EU LIFE funds including those in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains (US$ 3,256,742 – LIFE CARPATHIA), the Danube Delta (US$56,000 – LIFE DALMATIAN) and the Cairngorms (US$ 300,000 – CURLEW LIFE and LIFE 100%).

LIFE LUPI LYNX (3.5 million Euro) was approved by the European Commission in 2023. Rewilding Portugal are the coordinating beneficiary of the project which focuses on creating the socioecological conditions for the expansion of Iberian wolf and Iberian lynx in a transboundary region between Portugal and Spain. The project area includes the Greater Côa Valley in its entirety.

The Med Fund

Since 2021, the Gökova Bay to Cape Gelidonya project has secured US$210,000 from the MedFund to contribute towards annual Marine Protected Area (MPA) management costs. This includes supporting the management costs of Gökova bay and the Datça-Bozburun Special Environmental Protection Area (SEPA). Further funds from the MedFund to support Marine Protected Area management in Fethiye-Göcek have also been agreed.

Meeting the funding gap

The grant-making charity East Head Impact have given the Solent Seascape Project £1 million to meet the funding gap for delivery. Monitoring and reporting processes have been streamlined, including joint annual review meetings, so that they meet the requirements of both the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme and East Head Impact.

Private sector funding

On the back of work completed with an Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme Planning Grant, Orsted, which describes itself as ‘the world’s most sustainable energy company’, is partnering with Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts to help restore the biodiversity around the Humber Estuary. The project will invest more than £2.5 million to restore parts of the Humber on an ambitious scale not seen before, through the planting of saltmarsh and seagrass, and the creation of a biogenic reef through the introduction of 500,000 native oysters.