Naturescapes

Project Leader: Yuliya Voytenko Palgan

Duration: December 2023 - November 2027

Financing Body: EU - Horizon Europe

Collaborators: Utrecht University, Central European University, The Nature Conservancy Europe, ICS University of Lisbon, Trinity College Dublin, Grupo Laera, WWF-Colombia, WWF-International Switzerland, WWF-Peru, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

IIIEE researchers: Yuliya Voytenko Palgan, Charlotte Leire, Philipp Montenegro

Aim: Nature-based solutions (NBS) are interventions designed to use the properties of nature to address multiple sustainability challenges and contribute to biodiversity. Despite their growing popularity, we lack an understanding of the synergies and trade-offs that multiple NBS bring and of who benefits and under which conditions. The challenge of implementing NBS remains significant. We need to understand how NBS can support transformative change on the ground. Moving beyond individual NBS to the naturescapes that they generate, the project will advance the assessment of synergies and trade-offs that NBS generate. Naturescape is the assemblage of NBS within a landscape whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and societal factors.

The NATURESCAPES programme aims to 1) advance knowledge through novel approaches to evaluate landscape scale synergies and trade-offs of NBS assemblages for climate, biodiversity and communities; 2) evaluate the socio-political conditions and dynamics of NBS implementation to identify the values, visions, governance, finance and engagement needed to support effective and just naturescapes; and 3) enable the transformative potential of NBS by examining, developing and trialling diverse theories of change, interventions and training designed to address systemic, structural and capacity constraints.

Project website: https://portal.research.lu.se/en/projects/nature-based-solutions-for-climate-resilient-nature-positive-and-

(project website under construction)