A study looking at multiple regions across the continent shows how rewinding and other efforts can become smarter and more impactful.
Conduced by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Martin Luther University Halle‑Wittenberg (MLU), the research shows that Eastern and Southern areas of Europe have the highest overall suitability for climate and biodiversity projects.
However, climate adaptation is most effective in the north. Eastern Europe is also well placed to host climate mitigation efforts, while Western nations had more fragmented landscapes that constrained potential.
‘Climate-smart rewilding brings together ecosystem restoration and climate mitigation – two urgent EU priorities that do not always progress at the same pace,’ said lead author Dr Gavin Stark of iDiv and MLU. ‘We wanted an approach that not only prioritises restoration but also delivers climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and benefits for people.’
‘Climate-smart rewilding moves beyond single goal ecological restoration approaches that focus either in climate change or biodiversity change alone, and therefore often have undesirable side effects. Climate-smart rewilding addresses multiple objectives together delivering more benefits for nature and people’, added Senior Author Prof Dr Henrique Pereira of MLU and iDiv. ‘It helps practitioners and decisionmakers see which interventions could have the most impact when implemented in the right regions.’