Stakeholder engagement for the development and implementation of National Restoration Plans
Key recommendations across ecosystem types
Field trip with students from Ballinamore Community School in Cuilcagh-Anierin Uplands SAC (Ireland). Photo: WaterLANDS.
This policy and practice brief brings together insights from the four EU Horizon 2020 Green Deal “Restoration Cluster” projects, SUPERB, MERLIN, REST-COAST and WaterLANDS, offering recommendations on how to activate stakeholder engagement for the successful delivery of NRR targets, as well as concrete examples and tools to support stakeholder engagement throughout the process.
The European Union (EU) Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) mandates each Member State (MS) to develop draft National Restoration Plans (NRP) by September 2026, outlining how it will meet restoration targets. A critical component of this process is broad-based stakeholder engagement throughout all preparation phases.
Research conducted by four large Horizon 2020 Green Deal restoration projects across various European ecosystems offers guidance on how to activate stakeholder engagement for the successful delivery of NRR targets and provides concrete examples and tools to support this process (see links at the end of the document for resources covering the approaches and methods discussed in the brief).
- Implementation
- Social & Stakeholder
- Landowners & Practitioners
- Planners & Implementers
- Policy Actors
- Social and cultural values