The project supports the German Presidency of the Alpine Convention in strengthening cross-border cooperation on nature restoration by assessing restoration planning across Alpine states and developing ecosystem-specific guidance.
With the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, Member States are now required to restore ecosystems, including agricultural ecosystems, while ensuring that restoration is practical, socially grounded and compatible with viable farming systems. The Horizon Europe project BALANCE supports this challenge by demonstrating how farming systems can be nature-positive while remaining economically viable and embedded in local realities.
The AF4VALUE project addresses these barriers by developing and testing approaches that can strengthen agroforestry value chains and improve the economic viability of agroforestry for farmers and rural communities. The project focuses on practical innovation, business models, financial incentives, certification-related technologies and policy conditions that can support the agroecological transition.
BioClime strengthens synergies between biodiversity and climate policy under the CBD and UNFCCC. The project supports international negotiations and implementation processes in partner countries through policy advice, analysis, dialogue, and knowledge exchange.
The project “Development of an Evaluation Framework for Restoration Measures under the Nature Restoration Regulation” aims to develop a nationwide, modular approach for assessing the effectiveness of restoration measures. This evaluation framework is intended to ensure that targets are achieved, progress is tracked transparently, and measures can be adapted where necessary.
On behalf of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), Ecologic Institute supported the conceptual development and organisation of the European Networking Workshop on Urban Nature, held in Bonn on 5–6 May 2026. The workshop aimed to bring together key actors from across Europe to exchange experiences on promoting urban biodiversity and implementing the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.
The workshop aims to support the member states of the Alpine Convention in jointly developing a draft that describes the synergies between their national restoration plans. In addition, ideas for concrete cross-border projects will be collected that can be incorporated into the plans. This will create a basis for strengthening cooperation and nature conservation measures throughout the Alpine region.
How can nature conservation measures be designed to increase the resilience of ecosystems to climate change? This is the focus of a research project funded by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and led by the Ecologic Institute. The project aims to develop a scientifically sound and practical concept for assessing and promoting the climate resilience of ecosystems in Germany. The results are intended to provide strategic impetus for a climate-resilient approach to nature conservation.
The project analyses the development of environmental crime in Germany between 2013 and 2024, based on data from the Police Crime Statistics (PKS) and the law enforcement statistics of the Federal Statistical Office. The analysis provides both an overview of long-term trends and an in-depth assessment of individual categories of environmental offences.
The central question of the FairNature project is how nature-based solutions can be delivered at wide geographical scales in a just manner. The project aims to co-develop a framework that supports NbS practitioners at multiple governance levels in achieving just scaling that fosters transformative change, biodiversity protection, and societal well-being.
The research project analyses the need for integrated strategies in order to ensure sustainable development and preserve the basis of life. The project focuses on analysing the challenges and interactions between the three crisis areas and the question of how measures can be designed to create synergies between climate protection, biodiversity conservation and the reduction of environmental pollution. More crises are being added, e.g. land degradation and food security.
The aim of this project is to prepare a report that will serve as the basis for the evaluation report on the Federal Action Plan on Nature-based Solution for Climate and Biodiversity (ANK) to be submitted by the Federal Government in 2025. In March 2023, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) published the Federal Action Plan on Nature-based Solution for Climate and Biodiversity (ANK) with the aim of significantly improving ecosystems in Germany. It specifically counteracts the dual crisis of global heating and biodiversity loss.
Ecologic Institute is working together with Biota and the Michael Succow Foundation to identify concrete and practical conflicts of interest in the restoration of peatlands. In addition, Ecologic Institute supports the identification of needs and deficits, the evaluation and development of legally compliant solutions and guidelines for dealing with these conflicting objectives as well as the development of practical guidance manuals.
On behalf of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz – BfN), Ecologic Institute, together with other project partners, is supporting the planning and implementation of the national restoration plans. Ecologic Institute actively contributes to the content of the work, in particular through its expertise in the assessment of ecosystem conditions and the development of measures for the protection and restoration of inland and coastal ecosystems.
Ecologic Institute and Landscape Integrated are conducting a practical test of the recommended procedures for monitoring the success of hydromorphological measures in and along flowing waters.