Knowing where to restore first is one of the challenges now facing the European Union member states, after the submission of their respective National Restoration Plans. Portugal was the third country to present its plan, on 28 August, and research from the TERRA Associated Laboratory now proposes a tool to help define priorities in freshwater ecosystems, as announced in a press release.
According to the same source, the researchers developed a map that identifies, across the European Union, areas where ecological restoration could generate greater benefits through the so-called ecosystem services. The methodology, published in the scientific journal Ecosystems and People under the title Spatial assessment of co-benefit restoration priorities for freshwater ecosystems in Europe, seeks to answer a central question: where to restore in order to maximize benefits for society?
Rivers, lakes and wetlands are among the ecosystems with the greatest biodiversity and perform functions such as flood regulation, nutrient retention and water supply, in addition to supporting activities such as fishing and tourism. Despite this importance, they are subject to various environmental and human pressures and are undergoing degradation.
According to the researchers, one of the limitations of current restoration approaches is that many interventions are planned at the scale of a given stretch of river or a project, without a holistic view that allows management strategies to be defined at a broader scale.
The methodology developed by TERRA aims to address this problem by combining data on the state of ecosystems with information about their capacity to provide services to society. The result is an Index of Restoration Potential, represented on a map that allows distinguishing, among areas that require intervention, those where restoration could provide greater benefits.
“This work allows countries to prioritise the restoration of freshwater systems. We are able to determine where restoration is easier to do and where there is greater potential benefit to society. It is a useful tool for managing ecosystems and decisive for the final version of the national restoration plans,” explains Paulo Branco, executive director of the TERRA Associated Laboratory and researcher at the Centre for Forestry Studies (CEF).
The tool arrives at a moment when member states begin to move from plan definition to the implementation of the measures foreseen in the European Regulation on Nature Restoration. The regulation sets a target to restore at least 20% of the European Union’s land and marine areas by 2030 and all ecosystems that require it by 2050. It also includes the objective of recovering at least 25,000 kilometres of free-flowing rivers.
With the Portuguese plan submission completed, the map developed by TERRA may thus constitute a decision-support instrument on where to focus restoration efforts in river ecosystems, bringing scientific information closer to planning and management needs.
