Designing a Resilient and Coherent Trans-European Network for Nature and People (NaturaConnect)

NaturaConnect aims to support the development of the TEN-N, through an integration of stakeholder engagement across scales and interdisciplinary research, to develop spatial planning policy supporting tools. Stakeholder engagement both at the European scale, and in a set of six case studies at transborder, national and sub-national scales, will elicit preferences from decision-makers about conservation targets, harness best protected area management practices and funding mechanisms, and test the TEN-N spatial prioritization analysis and tools produced by NaturaConnect. This will address three of the major obstacles identified by the Fitness Check of the EU Nature Legislation: (1) lack of stakeholder awareness and cooperation; (2) insufficient knowledge and access to existing funding mechanisms; and (3) limited availability of knowledge on biodiversity distribution, drivers of change and solutions. To address this, NaturaConnect has a comprehensive set of interdisciplinary research tasks aimed at producing, sharing and mobilizing knowledge for implementation. This includes applying state-of-the-art models on the distribution of biodiversity and ecosystem services across Europe and how it may change under future climate and land-use scenarios, in order to close gaps in distribution data and identify gaps in the current protected area coverage and to conserve ecological corridors and restore connectivity.