We had biodiversity targets and goals, we have now a spatial plan for biodiversity!

The final stakeholder event of the EU-funded NaturaConnect project was held in Brussels on 22 September 2026. The project has been building the scientific backbone for a truly coherent Trans-European Nature Network (TEN-N).

This comes just in time! First, because European Member States started submitting their first draft of their nature restoration plans and the project provides a solid blueprint! Second, this month's UN Biodiversity COP17 Armenia will kick off in Yerevan and will address the progress made in implementing the global biodiversity framework. The open access tools and methods developed by NaturaConnect will be relevant to all regions.

Because the challenges of connecting fragmented habitats, prioritizing restoration areas, and integrating climate projections are universal, NaturaConnect's outputs directly support various targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (the 30x30 goal), in particular Target 1, by moving beyond simple area targets to focus on ecological representation, resilience, and connectivity.

The project generated many outputs:

🔹 Tools for Effective Protection

The project has developed open-access spatial planning tools and a 1km resolution layer of opportunity costs across Europe. This allows planners to identify where conservation is economically feasible and where corridors are needed most. This is essential for avoiding the paper park trap that is plaguing global 30x30 progress.

🔹 Capacity Building for Practitioners

Through the European Nature Academy, the project created training modules and a competence assessment tool based on IUCN standards. These resources are designed to be adaptable for conservation managers facing similar spatial planning challenges worldwide. These will be extremely useful to support the work of the Technical and Scientific Cooperation support centres (TSCCs) for Biodiversity.

🔹 Data-Driven Conservation Status

The researchers found that only 34.8% of EU reporting units meet or exceed their estimated favourable range, less than half of previous reported estimates. This kind of transparent, data-driven methodology is exactly what is needed to support countries in setting realistic restoration baselines.

More about NaturaConnect project can be found here: NaturaConnect - NaturaConnect