Restoration Works
The long-term health of ecosystems requires us to transform our environment through an approach that looks to the future and repairs the damage that has been done.
With a focus on restoring natural processes at landscape and seascape scale, the ELSP is working to provide the space and connectivity that nature needs if we are to have resilient land, sea, and freshwater ecosystems that contribute to human well-being and ecological health.
As its projects breathe new life into degraded ecosystems across Europe, the ELSP is learning from that experience, refining approaches to restoration and impact-monitoring, and strengthening a network of restoration practitioners.
The restoration projects funded by the Programme are long-term. Some have time horizons spanning decades, or even centuries, and funding from the ELSP supports just a stage in that long journey.
The ELSP funded its first seven restoration projects in 2019. From the coast of Türkiye to the Carpathian Mountains, these projects provide inspirational examples of what can be achieved when non-governmental organisations, government agencies, landowners, the private sector, and communities work together.
They show that restoration works.
projects funded by the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme in 2019.
The number of countries these projects are working in across Europe.
175,402 ha directly under restoration.
communities benefitting from action taken by these projects.
Explore the projects
Făgăraș Mountains, Southern Carpathians, Romania
200,000 ha
Old-growth forest, mixed temperate forest, alpine meadows, riparian corridors
The Carpathian Mountains are the second-longest mountain range in Europe. Providing habitats for Europe’s largest populations of brown bear, grey wolf and Eurasian lynx, the mountains are as beautiful as they are essential to life. In recent years, these habitats have become threatened by clear-felling, overgrazing, and unsustainable development.
This project is creating a world-class wilderness reserve in the southern Carpathian Mountains that is large enough to develop an integrated and self-sustaining ecosystem, support significant numbers of large carnivores, and allow ecological processes to recover.
Visit the project’s profile here.
Read the Restoration Works Report here.
Cairngorms National Park, Scottish Highlands, Scotland, UK
60,000 ha
Caledonian pine forest, montane woodland, blanket bog, wetlands, rivers and floodplains
From ice-hewn mountains to hazy pinewood forests, tranquil lochs to wild, rushing rivers, a vast landscape within the stunning Scottish Highlands provides an opportunity for the UK’s largest habitat-restoration partnership: Cairngorms Connect.
Over centuries, the needs of agriculture, commercial forestry, and field-sports defined the patterns of land management here. Now, Cairngorms Connect is shifting the emphasis. This project is restoring the Caledonian pine forest to its natural limit, reinstating drained wetlands, reinvigorating rivers, reviving huge tracts of peatland, improving the area for wildlife (including eagles, wildcats, pine martens, ospreys and otters), bolstering climate resilience, and supporting connections with the land – both now and well into the future.
Visit the project’s profile here.
Read the Restoration Works Report here.
Ukraine, Romania and Moldova
580,000 ha
River delta, marshes, reed beds, coastal lagoons, grasslands, steppe and riverine forest
Europe’s largest natural river delta, the Danube Delta is home to large populations of breeding birds, including 16 globally and nationally threatened species. Changes to the natural flows of river systems and industrial infrastructure – e.g., dykes, sluices, and drained polders – have undermined natural processes including flooding, erosion, sedimentation, water circulation, and water purification.
Collectively, these degraded important natural resources and reduced biodiversity. To counteract these problems, Rewilding Europe employs rewilding principles in Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova to restore landscapes and encourage a nature-based economy. Actions such as habitat restoration and wildlife comeback are already helping restore the Delta’s unique environment, and its amazing biodiversity, for future generations.
Visit the project’s profile here.
Read the Restoration Works Report here.
Greater Côa Valley, Beira Interior, Portugal
318,000 ha
Oak forests, rocky heathlands, river canyons, montado and riparian woodland
The Greater Côa Valley of Beira Interior, northern Portugal, is an important region for birds of prey and apex predators, but habitat loss, recurrent wildfires, and persecution have diminished populations of these species, disrupted food chains, and damaged local ecology.
This project is creating a crucial wildlife corridor in the Greater Côa Valley and transforming a region with currently high levels of rural depopulation and species loss into one with new opportunities for people and wildlife. The recovery of biodiversity-rich Mediterranean habitats is creating the conditions for wildlife comeback and underpinning the development of a modern, nature-based economy that serves as a regional role model.
Visit the project’s profile here.
Read the Restoration Works Report here.
Gökova Bay to Cape Gelidonya, Mediterranean Coast, Türkiye
62,681 ha
Sea-grass beds (Posidonia oceanica), rocky reefs, coralligenous and macroalgal habitats
Where the central Aegean Sea meets the north-east Levantine Sea, Mediterranean waters provide critical habitat for some of the region’s most charismatic species, including Mediterranean monk seal, loggerhead turtle, and sandbar shark. These waters have long provided local people with sustainable livelihoods through fishing, but this traditional way of life is being threatened by illegal and unregulated fishing activity, damage from tourism, and invasive species from the Indo-Pacific.
With support from Fauna & Flora, Akdeniz Koruma Derneği (The Mediterranean Conservation Society, AKD) and their partners are restoring approximately 500 km of vulnerable marine habitat along Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast, helping to re-establish healthy ecosystems, provide space for habitat and species recovery, and strengthen the first line of defence against invasive species.
This pioneering work has been recognised on the international stage, with the project showcased as a flagship project in the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration in 2022, and AKD President Zafer Kızılkaya awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2023.
Visit the project’s profile here.
Read the Restoration Works Report here.
Chachuna Managed Reserve, Iori River Valley, Georgia
22,000 ha
Steppe, grassland, scrubland and gallery and riverine forest
The Iori River and its associated gallery forest are essential elements of the fragile Georgian steppe ecosystem. Home to magnificent birds of prey, wolves, bears, and gazelles, and bordered by steppes and barren ‘badlands’, this dramatic landscape is threatened by unsustainable agriculture and the remnants of former Soviet infrastructure. This project has started to revitalise this steppe-riverine ecosystem, while enabling local pastoralists to manage the land sustainably in the long-term.
Visit the project’s profile here.
Read the Restoration Works Report here.
Polesia, Ukraine and Belarus
1,200,000 ha
Wetlands, peatlands, floodplain meadows, marshes, mires and raised bogs
Polesia is a vast lowland region in Eastern Europe. Spanning parts of Ukraine and Belarus, it is shaped by the Pripyat River basin. Covering more than 18 million hectares, it contains one of the largest remaining natural complexes in the temperate lowlands of Europe. Its wetlands, peatlands, and flood-plain forests support species such as European bison, brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos), grey wolf, and Eurasian lynx, alongside globally important bird populations.
Beyond its biodiversity, Polesia provides essential ecosystem services. Its wetlands store carbon, regulate water flows, and reduce the risk of floods and droughts. However, logging, drainage, mining, and infrastructural development threaten the integrity of this landscape.
The project is strengthening protection, restoring degraded wetlands, and improving ecological connectivity to secure one of Europe’s largest functioning natural areas.
Visit the project’s profile here.
Read the Restoration Works Report here.
Interested in supporting the next stage of our journey?
“The innovation and entrepreneurship that project teams demonstrate is not only a source of inspiration but also of knowledge. Working often in challenging conditions, these teams transform landscapes that are important symbols for a green future, and leave a legacy that this generation may pass on to the next.”
Dame Lisbet Rausing and Sir Peter Baldwin (co-founders, Arcadia)
Explore all our restoration projects on our project page.
A safe haven for the future: restoring Romania’s Carpathian Mountains
First satellite-tagged angel shark marks milestone for Lemnos restoration project
Songs of the Watershed: Katja Malinen on music, memory and restoration
The return of the wild in Portugal’s Greater Côa Valley
Can Europe produce enough native oysters for restoration?
