RESTORE4Cs – Modelling RESTORation of wEtlands for Carbon pathways, Climate Change mitigation and adaptation, ecosystem services, and biodiversity, Co-benefits
Addressing climate change, biodiversity loss and habitat degradation towards a sustainable management of European wetlands
Project summary
Focusing on coastal wetlands across Europe, RESTORE4Cs delivered standardised methodologies and approaches for the prioritisation of restoration, promoting carbon-storage and GHG emissions abatement, while improving the ecological status and the provision of additional ecosystem services, such as flood regulation and coastal erosion protection. More in detail, the project provided online, user-friendly and integrated tools as unique entry points for wetland practitioners and decision makers regarding the prioritisation of conservation and restoration actions, in relation with their GHG performance as well as impacts on biodiversity and a wide range of ecosystem services while addressing in parallel three spatial scales (local, national, regional/pan-European) combined with the three targeted habitats (wetlands, floodplans and peatlands).
Our role
The ETC-UMA team contributed to the policy and user analysis of the project, leading on the wetland mapping and assessment and coordinating the creation of a dedicated data portal for wetland related information. These inputs were based on previous collaborations with the European Environment Agency, the European Commission and the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition as well as the participation in a series of research projects.
Main outputs
Policy briefs
Visit the project website for other available languages:
Romanian, Portuguese, Dutch, Lithuanian, French, and Spanish.
Other project resources
More about it
Maria del Mar Otero
mar_otero@uma.es
Maria del Mar Otero is a coastal and marine expert with long experience in the Mediterranean, Europe and Asia. She holds a PhD in Marine Science, an MSc in Shellfish Resource Management and a BSc in Marine Science...
Christoph Schröder
christoph.schroder@uma.es
Based on my MSc in Geography (University of Bonn) I have developed expertise in Geographic Information Systems and land use/cover change analysis from local to global scale with particular interest in the Mediterranean...
Our partners
Universidade de Aveiro – University of Aveiro (UAVR, Portugal)
Ecologic Institut, gemeinnützige GmbH (Ecologic, Germany)
Universidad de Málaga (ETC-UMA, Spain)
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR, Italy)
Fondation Tour du Valat (TdV, France)
Universitat de València (UVEG, Spain)
Universitat de Barcelona (UB, Spain)
Wassercluster Lunz - University of Vienna (WCL, Austria)
Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH (RSS, Germany)
Universitatea din București – University of Bucarest (UNIBUC, Romania)
Klaipedos Universitetas (KU, Lithuania)
Secretariat MedWet (MedWet, France)
Updated MedBioLitter Dashboard Enhances Geospatial Analysis of Marine Litter Impacts
The MedBioLitter Knowledge Base Platform has reached a new milestone with the release of its latest update, further consolidating its role as a key resource for understanding the relationship between marine litter and biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea. The newly enhanced ...
New Factsheet: Selecting the Right Management Evaluation Tool for Marine Protected Areas
A wide range of tools is currently available to assess the management effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This can make the selection process complex for practitioners. To support MPA managers in this task, ETC-UMA has developed a new factsheet ...
ETC-UMA Advances Mediterranean Ecosystem Restoration at COP24 Through Coastal, Marine, Forest and Wetland Action
As climate pressures intensify across the Mediterranean, the need for coordinated action to conserve and restore ecosystems across the spectrum has never been more urgent. Wetlands, forests, coastal or marine ecosystems host habitats that strengthen the region’s adaptability and resilience, ...
Insights from the RESTORE4Cs Autumn School 2025: Bridging Science and Policy for an Enhanced Resilience of Coastal Wetlands
From 3 to 6 November 2025, experts, researchers, students as well as practitioners and decision makers from across Europe and beyond gathered at the ETC-UMA premises in Málaga, Spain, for the RESTORE4Cs Autumn School 2025: “Modelling, Policy and Practice for ...
RESTORE4Cs 2nd Policy Brief: Unlocking Potential of Coastal Wetlands in Europe: Integration into National Restoration Plans
The second RESTORE4Cs Policy Brief of RESTORE4Cs, “Unlocking Potential of Coastal Wetlands in Europe: Integration into National Restoration Plans“, highlights the critical role of National Restoration Plans (NRPs) under the EU Nature Restoration Regulation in enhancing the restoration and resilience of coastal wetlands. The brief outlines how ...
Back in Lebanon with BioConnect: Witnessing nature protection and socioecological resilience in action
As part of ETC-UMA’s role as the external evaluator for the EU-funded BioConnect project, the Centre’s Director, Dania Abdul Malak, carried out a site visit to Lebanon from July 8 to 12 to assess the project’s progress in its third ...
Boosting Climate Resilience: Wetland4Change Project Advances Flood Management Solutions for Mediterranean Coastal Zones
The Mediterranean coastal zone´s combination of multiple severe climate hazards – rising temperatures, water scarcity, sea-level rise, and extreme weather events – makes it a hotspot for highly interconnected climate risks for the ecosystems and societies. Recent catastrophic floods in ...
RESTORE4Cs 1st Policy Brief: How can coastal wetlands help achieve EU climate goals?
The first RESTORE4Cs Policy Brief of RESTORE4Cs, “How can coastal wetlands help achieve EU climate goals?“, highlights the importance of European coastal wetlands for reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions. The key messages of the first RESTORE4Cs Policy Brief include: Coastal wetlands are important natural carbon stores, ...
Mapping the Impact of Blue Tourism in the Mediterranean
The IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation with the support of ETC-UMA in the framework of the Blue Tourism Initiative, has released a comprehensive report entitled “Mapping the Impact of Blue Tourism in the Mediterranean: Vulnerability Assessment of Coastal and Marine ...
StrategyMedFor Presented at Annual Medforval Meeting 2024
StrategyMedFor was prominently featured at the Annual Medforval Meeting 2024, held from June 5-7 in Fontecchio, Italy. The event brought together 25 practitioners from national parks and natural reserves across 9 Mediterranean countries, providing a valuable platform for StrategyMedFor to ...
Celebrating leadership in environmental management: an interview with Dania Abdul Malak
From designing integrated ecosystem assessments in Europe and the Mediterranean to transforming outcomes into evidence-based recommendations for regional stakeholders, the European Topic Centre on Spatial Analysis and Synthesis (ETC-UMA) stands as a flagship for territorial cooperation. At the forefront of ...
Save the date! Unlocking solutions for coastal conservation in Europe
How can coastal wetlands respond to major European Union objectives such as climate neutrality, biodiversity protection, and pollution reduction? What key role do coastal wetlands play in achieving EU commitments for climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation? The European Topic Centre ...
Towards a Strategy for the Sustainable Management of Mediterranean Forests (StrategyMedFor)
The StrategyMedFor project, co-financed by the Interreg Euro-MED programme, was launched at the University of Malaga during a two day meeting that took place on March 18 and 19, 2024. The European Topic Centre on Spatial Analysis and Synthesis (ETC-UMA), ...
Collaborative science for forests by ETC-UMA showcased in Slovenia during the COP23
As UNEP MAP partner organization, ETC-UMA recently engaged in the organization of a session with Mediterranean institutions under the topic of climate change, entitled: From COASTAL to FOREST ecosystems: Mediterranean Nature-based Solutions to tackle climate change and ensure the Resilience ...