The European Regulation on Nature Restoration establishes some requirements to ensure compliance with the European Nature Directives, including the ambitious goal of planting three billion trees. Additionally, the Regulation encourages promoting ecological connectivity and fostering synergies with other European policies, particularly those aimed at climate change adaptation. Furthermore, it underscores the importance of national restoration plans being developed through participatory processes engaging all relevant stakeholders. Overall, the Regulation sets out mandatory criteria that member states must follow to identify priority areas for restoration.

Yet, the Regulation remains flexible, allowing member states significant autonomy to integrate additional criteria into their prioritization models based on their unique ecological, socioeconomic, and governance contexts. Since restoration projects are implemented at the local level, they must be designed to align with the needs and aspirations of the communities most directly affected by them.

In summary, restoration projects developed under the European Regulation must adhere to criteria established at multiple levels, from the overarching European legislative framework to locally defined priorities. To address this complexity, national restoration plans should adopt a multi-scale and participatory prioritization approach.

Here, we present a conceptual framework for the multi-scale prioritization of forest habitat restoration in Spain (Fig. 1). We outline approaches at various scales, from national to local, to demonstrate how different factors can be integrated into decision-making.

Figure 1.  

A conceptual framework for developing multicriteria models to prioritize forest restoration across multiple scales.

To develop the multi-criteria prioritization model for forest habitats, we used the habitat cartography from the Spanish forest map at a 1:50,000 scale (Sánchez de Dios et al. 2019) combined with conservation status estimates derived from the 2dRUE-ES index (Del Barrio et al. 2019). Based on this mapping, we assessed the potential contribution of restoring habitats in unfavorable conditions to enhancing forest species connectivity, using ecological connector maps for different ecoprofiles (MITECO 2023). Additionally, we evaluated the role of restoration in mitigating drought risk, a major climate change component, mapping the results from FUNGOBE (2023). Finally, we incorporated wildfire vulnerability, as informed by retrospective estimates from Duane et al. (2019).

By integrating these criteria, we identified habitats in poor conservation status whose restoration would enhance connectivity while reducing vulnerability to drought and wildfires. This model serves as a heuristic tool, providing a preliminary framework for prioritizing forest habitat restoration in Spain. More importantly, it helps identify knowledge gaps and supports the development of similar modelling approaches adapted to sub-national scales.

At the local scale, we have developed a landscape-scale prioritization model for ca. 2,000 km² areas in the provinces of Alicante and Valencia (southeastern Spain). In both areas, we used participatory processes to establish a prioritization framework for terrestrial ecosystem restoration based on population preferences, the projected increase in ecosystem services with restoration (weighted by public input), implementation and maintenance costs, and the cost-effectiveness ratio (Derak et al. 2023; Silva et al. 2023).

Our approach highlighted the discrepancies between different approaches and emphasized the importance of using prioritization models as tools to support collaborative decision-making. Finally, we facilitated the establishment of a living lab in southern Alicante to promote the co-design of restoration projects and encourage multi-stakeholder collaboration (Fig. 2; https://web.ua.es/es/r2d/renaturem-sur-de-alicante.html). In its initial phase, the laboratory has laid the groundwork for cooperation, conducted informational events, and organized workshops focused on landscape restoration efforts in the area.

Figure 2.  

RENATUREM living lab activities included an open discussion on nature degradation and restoration in southern Alicante, and field workshops to co-design restoration projects.

EU Regulation on Nature Restoration, EU Nature Directives, Multicriteria decision models, Habitat conservation status, Social participation

Jordi Cortina-Segarra

KEYNOTE