19 March 2025 | Hendrik Conscience Building, Brussels

WHEN NATURE CAN DO THE JOB

Fostering co-benefits for people and the environment in view of the Nature Restoration Regulation

The European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, Horizon Europe projects wildE, REWRITE, WILDCARD and the Society for Ecological Restoration Europe hosted this event to discuss the opportunities and challenges for implementing restoration in a way that "lets nature do the job".

Read the programme

The passing of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation was a landmark decision for nature. This first-of-its-kind legislation aims to restore significant areas of degraded terrestrial and marine ecosystems across the EU member states. It implies an upscaling of ecological restoration far beyond current practice, which will require novel perspectives and solutions that are environmentally effective, economically feasible, and socially acceptable.

By bringing together leading European experts from the research and policy sectors, this event considered where and when nature could help create ecosystems that support biodiversity, store carbon and enhance livelihoods which will enable both nature and people to better cope with the growing impacts of modern climate change.

Event programme

Read our full event programme, which focused in particular on restoration perspectives and solutions that combat biodiversity and climate change challenges together, and are environmentally effective, economically feasible, and socially acceptable.

The event was opened by Aveliina Helm, President of the Society for Ecological Restoration Europe, and Hilde Eggermont, Director of the Research Institute for Nature and Forest.

Each session consisted of three 15-min presentations by leading European experts, followed by 5-min Q&A sessions and a final 30-min general discussion:

The opening session, moderated by Georg Winkel (Wageningen University), set the greater scene and considered the needs to be tackled under the Nature Restoration Regulation including:
- A positive future for people and nature with climate-smart rewilding, with Henrique Pereira (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research)
- The potential for nature's contributions to the EU's climate policy, with Jette Bredahl Jacobsen (University of Copenhagen and EU Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change)
- Costs and benefits of forest restoration options, with Sven Wunder (European Forest Institute and Center for International Forestry Research)
The combination of experts from the environmental, social and economic sciences underpinned the interdisciplinary nature of the session.
The second session, moderated by Charlotte Hopkins (University of Hull), presented three examples of successful restoration from different contexts:
- Restoring European woodland ecosystems: foundations, empirical insights and future perspectives with Jens-Christian Svenning (Aarhus University)
- Gelderse Poort, a gateway to the future, with Wouter Helmer (ARK Nature and Rewilding Europe)
- Coastal restoration and protection: looking beyond the dykes, with Iris Möller (Trinity College Dublin)
Each case illustrates in its way how biodiversity support and climate change adaptation are intertwined and can be jointly addressed.
Our final session, moderated by Katharina Faradsch (Prospex Institute), convened a cross-sectorial set of speakers to share their respective experiences with concrete legal, governance, and financial challenges and solutions under the Nature Restoration Regulation.
- Legal barriers and possible solutions for upscaling nature restoration: from legal ‘mess’ to legal certainty, with An Cliquet (University of Ghent and SER Europe Legal Working Group)
- Nature restoration as governance challenge: integrity, clarity and utility, with Jan Verheeke (Flemish Environment Council and EEAC Network)
- Financing nature restoration: investment for resilient societies, with Ariel Brunner (BirdLife International)

The event was closed by Humberto Delgado Rosa (Director of the DG Environment Directorate for Biodiversity), who discussed how we can make the most of the Nature Restoration Regulation.

Meet our speakers

Henrique Pereira

Henrique is head of the Biodiversity Conservation research group at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and professor at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. His research revolves around patterns and processes of global biodiversity change, including monitoring schemes and future scenarios for biodiversity and ecosystem services. He was a coordinating lead author of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the Methodological Assessment on Scenarios and Models of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and the fourth Global Biodiversity Outlook. He is an elected member of the Academia Europaea.
Jette Bredahl Jacobsen

Jette is a professor in environmental and resource economics at the University of Copenhagen. Her research focuses on the interaction between human and nature – analysed through economics. She has in particular done research on the valuation and regulation of biodiversity, forestry and climate change. She was a member of the Danish Council on Climate Change from 2015 to 2023, and is currently vice-chair of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change.
Sven Wunder

Sven is principal scientist at the Governance Programme of the European Forest Institute. His research addresses natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, livelihoods, as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation. In particular his work on Payments for Environmental Services (PES) and other incentives and business models for enhancing the provision of ecosystem services has rendered him one of the world’s most cited scientists in the field of economics and business.
Jens-Christian Svenning

Jens-Christian is a professor of ecology at the Department of Biology at Aarhus University and director of the newly established DNRF Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO). His influential work on the effects of climate change on biomes and biodiversity, human-environment interactions across historical and future contexts, and ecological restoration through rewilding has been recognised by numerous international awards.
Wouter Helmer

Wouter is a co-founder of the conservation NGOs ARK Nature and Rewilding Europe, which have overseen hundreds of rewilding initiatives. The Gelderse Poort programme has successfully rewilded 5,000 ha around the top of the Dutch Rhine delta, including the removal of dozens of dams and the relocation of 10 farms and 50 households. The area receives today >1.5 million visitors per year.
Iris Möller

Iris is a professor of geography at the Trinity College of Dublin. She is a coastal geomorphologist who investigates how the interactions between physical and biological processes shape coasts, particularly in the intertidal zone. She uses these insights to develop integrative solutions for a coastal environment in which people are protected from flooding and erosion whilst also taking advantage of the many benefits healthy ecosystems and dynamic coastal landforms have for humans.
An Cliquet

An is a professor of international and European environmental and biodiversity law at Ghent University. Her research covers ecological restoration law, and topics such as EU protected area law and the relationship between climate change and biodiversity. She is a member of the European Environmental Law Forum and of the IUCN World Commission on environmental law, and chairs the Legal Working Group on Restoration of the Society for Ecological Restoration Europe (SERE).
Jan Verheeke

Jan is the Secretary General of the Flemish Environment Council, and vice chair and working group lead on ecosystem services at the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils Network (EAAC). He was also a personal advisor on nature policy to the Flemish environment minister from 2004 to 2009.
Ariel Brunner

Ariel is Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia with the environmental NGO BirdLife International. He is widely recognised as prominent expert on the environmental impacts of EU farm policies. He has chaired DG Agriculture’s Advisory Group on Agriculture and Environment and has been a member of its Expert Group on Public Goods, and of the European Commission’s High-Level Steering Group on the European Innovation Partnership on agriculture. In recent years, he has played a leading role in advocacy around the European Green Deal, the EU Biodiversity Strategy and the NatureAlert campaign to defend and achieve better implementation of the EU nature protection legislation