Let nature help do the job: Rewilding landscapes for carbon sequestration, climate adaptation and biodiversity support
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-CL5-2022-D1-02-05
- Programme
- Climate sciences and responses
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- October 12, 2021
- Deadline
- February 10, 2022
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €15,000,000
- Keywords
- Climatic researchSocial InnovationSocial sciences and humanitiesDigital AgendaArtificial Intelligence
Description
Project results are expected to contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:
- Contribution to IPBES and IPCC, to the achievement of objectives of reaching net zero carbon emissions, enhancing climate change adaptation, and to the EU Biodiversity Strategy.
- Support the implementation of the Horizon Europe Mission on Adaptation to climate change including societal transformation.
- Identify low cost/benefit ratio options to restore natural and semi-natural ecosystems for carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation.
- Assess the value of restoring ecosystem for adaptation to and/or mitigation of climate change and identify potential rebound effects and trade-offs.
- Demonstrate the degree to which these approaches are affected by climate change itself and if they can still be effective under global warming of 2°C and higher.
- Demonstrate the potential contribution of European abandoned land and protected areas systems for carbon sequestration, adaptation to and/or mitigation of climate change.
- Develop strategies to minimize the increasing risk of wildfires due to the changing climate.
- Provide operational methods for low cost, low human intervention options for ecosystems restoration optimising the contributions to climate and biodiversity objectives and managing trade-offs.
- Help generate FAIR[1]data and well-documented, robust and transparent methodologies for better integration of land-use management systems into IAMs and ESMs.
- Assess the perception and acceptability of citizens and stakeholders on rewilding and rewilding options and identify potential conflicts and trade-offs in governance and decision-making.
The biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis are intrinsically linked and the contribution of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) to the global climate objectives is pivotal. A better understanding of how the use of ecosystems natural capacity, with minimal help from humans, can contribute to carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation is urgently needed to make the use of NBS operational.
Actions should foster interdisciplinary research with a focus on the climate-biodiversity nexus, advancing our knowledge to further promote integrated approaches to better address these interdependent challenges.
Actions, taking stock of previous and ongoing experience, including associated uncertainty, should provide a robust assessment of the potential contribution that restoring ecosystems, including trophic chains restoration, with a “let nature do the job”, also called “rewilding”, approach can provide in terms of carbon sequestration and storage, climate change mitigation and adaptation and biodiversity conservation. “Rewilding” is meant here as passive management of ecological succession with the goal of restoring natural ecosystem processes and reducing human control of landscapes, although some intervention may be required in the early restoration stages.
Actions can address specific ecosystems and/or landscapes on land, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems while providing a clear contribution to define the potential use of the “rewilding” approach at regional, national and continental levels.
Actions should build on an updated and detailed picture of the status and trends of ecosystems change, (including, where applicable, land abandonment) in Europe to assess where, at which ecological conditions and at what scale the “rewilding” approach can significantly improve carbon sequestration together with habitats reinforcement and biodiversity conservation.
Actions should investigate how “rewilding” can be complemented with other approaches (for example active restoration and conservation, low intensity farming, forestry and pasture management, fishing), taking into account specific regional conditions, to increase carbon sequestration, improve biodiversity conservation and ensure provision of goods and ecosystem services.
Actions should provide scientific insights, tools, methodologies and innovative solutions including social innovations to assist national governments, regions and communities in embedding the “rewilding” approach, as far as feasible, in their own plans to reach carbon neutrality. Actions should also advance the integration of land use options for carbon sequestration into IAMs and ESMs.
Actions should significantly advance knowledge on the role and relevance of restoring fully functional trophic chains, for instance through the conservation, management and reintroduction of apex predators, grazers and scavengers, in the “rewilding” process, with a special focus on the functioning of trophic cascades on landscape processes and the ability of ecosystems to act as carbon sinks. Challenges and barriers to this aim should be analysed and the involvement of Social Sciences and Humanities is recommended.
Actions should ensure appropriate multi-stakeholder collaboration and interdisciplinarity to embed socio-economic aspects, including opportunities for economic development, existing barriers (ecological, social, gender-related…) and potential synergies and drawbacks.
Actions should envisage clustering activities with other relevant actions, initiatives and programmes, including Horizon 2020 and the LIFE Programme to promote synergies, integration and co-operation. They should make use and contribute to knowledge exchange and networking European platforms (e.g. Climate-ADAPT, Network Nature, OPPLA, BiodivERsA). Cooperation and planning for further exploitation of actions results during and after the project end is strongly encouraged.
Synergies should be ensured with projects addressing wildfires (for example under the EU Green Deal call LC-GD-1-1-2020, Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 5).
This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH and gender expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.
Social innovation is recommended when the solution is at the socio-technical interface and requires social change, new social practices, social ownership or market uptake.
Cross-cutting Priorities:Socio-economic science and humanities
Social Innovation
[1]FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).
Destination & Scope
Europe has been at the forefront of climate science and should retain its leadership position to support EU policies as well as international efforts for a global uptake of climate action in line with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including biodiversity objectives. Advancing climate science and further broadening and deepening the knowledge base is essential to inform the societal transition towards a climate neutral and climate resilient society by 2050, as well as towards a more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target by 2030. It will involve research that furthers our understanding of past, present and expected future changes in climate and its implications on ecosystems and society, closing knowledge gaps, and develops the tools that support policy coherence and the implementation of effective mitigation and adaptation solutions. Due to the inherent international character of this subject, international collaboration is encouraged for topics under this destination.
The activities implemented under this section will enable the transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society and economy through improving the knowledge of the Earth system and the ability to predict and project its changes under different natural and socio-economic drivers, including a better understanding of society’s response and behavioural changes, and allowing a better estimation of the impacts of climate change and the design and evaluation of solutions and pathways for climate change mitigation and adaptation and related social transformation.
This Destination contributes directly to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientation C ”Making Europe the first digitally enabled circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy through the transformation of its mobility, energy, construction and production systems” and the impact area “Climate change mitigation and adaptation”.
In line with the Strategic Plan, the overall expected impact of this Destination is to contribute to the “Transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society and economy enabled through advanced climate science, pathways and responses to climate change (mitigation and adaptation) and behavioural transformations”, notably through:
- Advancing knowledge and providing solutions in the any of following areas: Earth system science; pathways to climate neutrality; climate change adaptation including climate services; social science for climate action; and better understanding of climate-ecosystems interactions.
- Contributing substantially to key international assessments such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the European Environment Agency (e.g. European environment state and outlook reports, SOER).
- Strengthening the European Research Area on climate change.
- Increasing the transparency, robustness, trustworthiness and practical usability of the knowledge base on climate change for use by policy makers, practitioners, other stakeholders and citizens.
Coordination and synergies between activities supported under Destination 1, as well as in other Destinations and Clusters, and in particular complementarities with Cluster 4 and Cluster 6 should be taken into account by planning for adequate resources for co-ordination and clustering activities. Following a systemic approach, Destination 1 concentrates on activities related to climate science and modelling, whereas Cluster 6 supports R&I in the areas covered by Cluster 6, notably on the implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions.
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes
The page limit of the application is 60 pages.
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System
2. Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes
5. Evaluation and award:
- Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes
- Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
- Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes
Specific conditions
7. Specific conditions: if any, they are included in the description of the specific topic of the Work Programme
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
The standard application form can be found in the link below, but be cautious that for this Call topic, the limit of 60 pages applies
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
MGA - Model Grant Agreement
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 8. Climate, Energy and Mobility
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
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