Ecosystem Restoration Archives - BIO-CAPITAL

Financing Nature at Scale: How Green and Nature Bonds Can Restore Ecosystems

admin — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 10:13:20 +0000

How can mainstream financial markets help regenerate ecosystems? In the fourth BIO-CAPITAL Deep Dive, Isabel Reuss of ITASIF made the case that bonds — one of the oldest and most conventional instruments in finance — may hold one of the most promising paths.

At their core, bonds are simple. Instead of taking a loan from a bank, governments, cities, companies or international institutions borrow money directly from investors. Those investors receive interest until the bond matures, and the issuer uses the capital to build roads, schools, infrastructure or innovation. Green bonds follow the same logic, but with a non-negotiable rule: the money must be spent on environmental projects.

In a market increasingly shaped by sustainability-minded investors, demand for these instruments has grown rapidly. They are regulated, widely understood, and highly liquid — a rare combination in the sustainability world. Yet despite their success, the share of green bonds dedicated to biodiversity is still surprisingly small.

Enter Nature Bonds

That is why the arrival of nature bonds in 2024 marks an important shift. They are not simply green bonds with a new label. To qualify, 100% of the proceeds must go into biodiversity-related activities, and the bonds must align with global frameworks such as the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. In practice, this means direct financing for forest restoration, coastal and river ecosystems, wetland buffers, pollinator corridors, or even renewable energy projects that include biodiversity-positive design.

Nature bonds also come with strict expectations: transparent reporting, impact monitoring, third-party verification. In a sector where the risk of greenwashing is real, credibility matters — and the structure of these bonds is designed to earn trust from both investors and the public.

What This Means for BIO-CAPITAL

For BIO-CAPITAL, this matters for a simple reason: scale. Many biodiversity initiatives are small, local, and fragmented. A single forest, a pilot wetland, a cluster of farms — meaningful, but difficult to attract major long-term investment. Bonds can change that. They make it possible to combine projects into larger portfolios, open them to pension funds and institutional investors, and deliver capital at the size nature restoration actually requires.

Within BIO-CAPITAL, green and nature bonds form part of a broader financial architecture, alongside Payments for Ecosystem Services, parametric insurance and Triple Capital Accounting. Together, these tools create something that biodiversity projects very rarely have: a financing backbone that can expand beyond pilot sites, operate across regions, and bring nature restoration into the centre of financial markets.

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Insurance for Nature: How Parametric Models Can Protect Biodiversity

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 09:41:35 +0000

The first BIO-CAPITAL Deep Dive opened with Ahmet Rasim Demirtaş of Agcurate BV, who offered a striking perspective on a financial tool not usually associated with ecology: insurance. But in a world of more frequent storms, droughts and floods, he argued, insurance can become a mechanism not just for compensation, but for conservation.

Traditional insurance waits for damage to occur and then sends assessors to calculate losses — a slow and often disputed process. Parametric insurance works differently. It relies on objective, measurable environmental data: rainfall below a certain level, wind above a threshold, rivers overtopping their banks. When the data crosses the trigger, the payout is automatic. No forms. No inspections. No delays.

From Climate Shocks to Safety Nets

Demirtaş described how this speed and transparency can make a crucial difference for nature. In Alpine forests, for example, a storm can wipe out trees that were storing carbon and generating revenue through carbon credits. A rapid insurance payout allows restoration to begin immediately, keeping the project viable. Farmers shifting to regenerative practices often face short-term yield losses; insurance can cushion that financial risk and give them confidence to stay the course. And in wetlands or grasslands, where floods can destroy years of ecological restoration, parametric payouts can finance repairs the moment water levels spike.

Within BIO-CAPITAL, parametric models are not viewed in isolation. They sit alongside other tools such as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and Triple Capital Accounting, creating a financial architecture designed to reward long-term stewardship while protecting projects against sudden shocks. Insurance becomes both an enabler — encouraging people to adopt nature-positive practices — and a safety net, ensuring those efforts aren’t wiped out in a single disaster.

From Coral Reefs to an Idea and Concept

What once sounded experimental is already becoming real. Coral reefs in Mexico are insured against hurricane damage; mangroves in the Caribbean are protected through parametric triggers linked to storm events; wetlands in China are covered against droughts, floods and wildfires. The idea is spreading: biodiversity is an asset, and like any asset, it can be protected.

Demirtaş’ message was direct: if we want nature-based solutions to scale, we must make them financially resilient. Parametric insurance does exactly that — turning environmental risk into measurable triggers, and ecological restoration into something investors can trust will endure.

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Biodiversity, Money, Satellites – Creating Meaning for BIO-CAPITAL

admin — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 10:50:47 +0000

The Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation Work Package of the project is about explaning BIO-CAPITAL, making its results accessible and usable.

BIO-CAPITAL is a project that brings together a wide range of expertise: finance, earth observation and remote sensing, policy, and environmental protection work. Its multidisciplinary nature requires constant internal exchange and a strong shared project vision. And bringing together very different methods and fields does not always make it easy to explain the project to the outside world with one voice. That is why BIO-CAPITAL has dedicated a separate work package to project communication and the preparation of project results for scientific, economic and social use. Our team at Oikoplus, a Vienna-based company that specializes in this area, has the exciting and challenging task of leading this work package.

When it comes to explaining a complex scientific project, it makes sense to develop a kind of narrative that allows people who are not experts in the field to understand the project. It’s about meaning-making. When I personally want to explain the BIO-CAPITAL project to someone I know, I sometimes use a metaphor. And that is the metaphor of a zoo.

Earth as a Zoo?

The mission statement of many botanical gardens and zoos is that they serve the study and conservation of plants, species and biodiversity. Let’s assume for now, that this self-perception is completely correct. At the zoo, you can study animals, and their behavior. Networks of zoos also serve to breed animals, including endangered species. In the controlled environments of zoos, animals can be cataloged, monitored, and observed. In nature, plants and species cannot be constantly monitored through the bars and glass panes of enclosures and cages, but through satellites and drones with geospatial sensor technology of all kinds.

This is where BIO-CAPITAL comes in. Technology-supported biodiversity monitoring thus follows the logic of the botanical/zoological garden, so to speak, and the growing amount of data on biodiversity turns habitats into such gardens, sort of. However, running a botanical garden or a zoo is a complex task from a micro-economical perspective. It requires resources, which are generated through entrance fees, donations, research grants, public money etc. Only if they manage to generate sufficient resources as market actors, they can fulfill their biodiversity conservation function.

Biodiversity provides a range of crucial ecosystem services, which makes the preservation of biodiversity a crucial necessaty. Since the negative effects of biodiversity loss are large and hardly manageable, the protection of biodiversity is a declared political goal. Nevertheless, Earth is experiencing a dramatic extinction of species and various ecosystems around the world are threatened by biodiversity loss, which is linked to the expansion of human settlements, intensive agricultural production styles and the exploitation of natural resources (IPBES, 2019).

One of the political paths taken to prevent biodiversity loss is the economic valorization of biodiversity. The underlying rationale: If the preservation of biodiversity is given a monetary value, and the destruction of biodiversity is given a price, then market forces can be used to protect biodiversity. However, if natural habitats are to be monitored by geospatial analytical technologies with regard to their biodiversity, this requires financial resources. That’s why BIO-CAPITAL not only seeks to measure biodiversity based on remote sensing, but also develops financial instruments linked to to monitoring. Going back to my little metaphor of the zoo and its business model, one could now ask: Who becomes a zoo financier, a zoo visitor, an animal keeper–how, and why?

Different Perspectives, One Project Voice

The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 specifies that “tackling biodiversity loss and restoring ecosystems will require significant public and private investments at national and European level.” Europe’s goal of mobilizing private investment and developing market-based solutions for the conservation of biodiversity is also reflected in a series of calls within the framework of the EU’s research and innovation programme (EC, 2022), and the EU’s Farm2Fork Strategy. BIO-CAPITAL is one of the projects, helping to bring Europes Biodiversity Strategy to life. The project brings together 17 organizations from 13 countries to harness financial solutions and advanced geospatial analytics to mobilize private capital investments for the protection and restoring of biodiversity.

Let’s go back to the logic of the zoo, or the botanical garden. As places that serve entertainment, pleasure, commerce, but also biological research, and species conservation, botanical gardens and zoos combine many different functions. And people attach very different meanings to them.

Our goal in Work Package 6 of the project is to acknowledge these different perspectives and explain the project in a transparent manner so that people inside and outside the consortium can reach a shared understanding of what the BIO-CAPITAL project is achieving. That’s challenging, but great task.

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Biodiversity Needs a Business Model: Rethinking How We Finance Nature

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 08:11:24 +0000

For decades, biodiversity has been regarded as a moral and ecological imperative, but not a financial one. While global institutions and scientific communities have emphasised the importance of protecting ecosystems, the tools to translate this value into investment-grade frameworks have lagged significantly behind. Today, that is changing. As climate finance accelerates and sustainability becomes a boardroom priority, the question is no longer whether to invest in nature – but how. And the reality is clear: biodiversity needs a business model.

The Cost of Inaction

The economic consequences of biodiversity loss are staggering. The World Bank estimates that nature’s degradation could cost the global economy $2.7 trillion annually by 2030[1]. Yet current investment in nature-based solutions remains far below what’s needed to halt ecosystem collapse. The bottleneck? A lack of structured, trusted, and scalable mechanisms to embed biodiversity in financial decision-making. Unlike carbon markets, biodiversity has no globally accepted credit system, no standardised metrics, and no clear policy pathways for de-risking investments. That’s where science and finance must meet.

Bridging Science and Finance

The BIO-CAPITAL project, funded by Horizon Europe, is one of several EU initiatives aimed at closing this gap. It brings together ecologists, data scientists, financial experts, and policy practitioners to co-create mechanisms that monetise biodiversity-positive actions – but with scientific integrity and social legitimacy.

At the core of BIO-CAPITAL’s approach is the recognition that ecological restoration must be measurable, verifiable, and certifiable in order to attract private capital. This means building new tools and infrastructure:

MRV (Monitoring, Reporting & Verification) systems based on remote sensing and AI
Natural Capital Accounting/Triple Capital Accounting frameworks that quantify ecosystem benefits
Biodiversity certificates and credits rooted in transparent methodology
Financial mechanisms like sustainability-linked bonds or blended finance instruments tied to ecological performance

Avoiding the Greenwashing Trap

However, commodifying nature carries its own risks. Without robust governance, we risk creating a market for biodiversity products that appear promising on paper but fail in practice. The race to develop biodiversity credits, for instance, has seen an influx of players proposing token-based systems, offset schemes, or voluntary certificates—many of which lack clear scientific baselines or traceability. This raises concerns about greenwashing and the dilution of genuine conservation outcomes. To counter this, BIO-CAPITAL and similar initiatives are working to embed scientific rigour, transparency, and stakeholder co-design into all valuation and certification models. The emphasis is not just on pricing biodiversity, but on defining its ecological integrity in ways that are both actionable and trustworthy.

A New Financial Architecture for Nature

To scale investment in biodiversity, we must move beyond isolated pilots and fragmented projects. We need a systemic financial architecture that supports:

Clear performance indicators for biodiversity outcomes
Long-term, risk-adjusted returns for nature-positive investments
Integration of biodiversity into ESG frameworks and regulatory disclosures
Incentives for blended finance models that combine public guarantees with private capital

This is not a call to turn nature into a commodity – it is a call to internalise its value into decision-making, at every level from farmers and landowners to institutional investors.

What Comes Next?

For biodiversity finance to become mainstream, we must rethink traditional silos between science, policy, and markets. Projects like BIO-CAPITAL are already laying the groundwork by connecting MRV systems with financial instruments, aligning stakeholder interests, and building models that can scale—and be trusted. At the same time, initiatives such as Invest4Nature, NATURANCE, BIO-CAPITAL , BIOFIN, Nature-3B, and RISE-IN demonstrate the growing momentum across Europe and beyond to integrate nature-based solutions and financial innovation into a coherent, systemic approach.

But the work has only begun. In the decade ahead, the world will either redefine how value is assigned to the natural world or continue extracting from it until it collapses. The choice is clear. The tools are emerging. Now, biodiversity must be bankable – with integrity at its core.

[1] Source: 🔗 worldbank.org

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BIO-CAPITAL at ESA’s Living Planet Symposium 2025: Presenting New Insights on Biodiversity Certificates

admin — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 08:44:34 +0000

We are thrilled to announce that BIO-CAPITAL will be attending the ESA Living Planet Symposium 2025, which will take place from 23–27 June 2025 in Vienna, Austria. This flagship Earth Observation (EO) event, organised by the European Space Agency (ESA), brings together scientists, policymakers, researchers and industry professionals to explore the future of EO technologies and their critical role in addressing global environmental challenges.

About the Living Planet Symposium

The Living Planet Symposium (LPS), held every three years, is one of the world’s largest Earth Observation conferences. It provides a platform for sharing scientific findings, showcasing innovative applications and fostering collaboration between institutions and countries. The 2025 edition will highlight the transformative potential of Earth Observation (EO) in advancing climate action, sustainable development and biodiversity conservation, making it the perfect stage for BIO-CAPITAL’s mission and work.

Presenting Research on Biodiversity Certificates

We are proud to announce that the paper titled Object-Based Assessment of Ecosystem Restoration Level for Biodiversity Certificates in Europe, written by Lisa Delvaux, Julien Radoux and Prof. Pierre Defourny, has been accepted for presentation at session F.04.08: Earth Observation for Nature Finance and Ecosystem Accounting.

🗓️ Presentation date: Wednesday, 25 June 2025

🕚 Time: 11:30–13:00

📍 Room: 0.49/0.50

This presentation will introduce a novel approach to quantifying biodiversity gains through object-based remote sensing, which has been tailored to meet the requirements of emerging biodiversity certificates. The aim of these certificates is to establish trustworthy, transparent and scalable mechanisms that support investments in ecosystem restoration, thereby aligning with the objectives of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The methodology uses Sentinel-2 data and machine learning to identify ecologically homogeneous landscape areas and group them based on land cover and abiotic characteristics. These clusters serve as proxies for biodiversity potential and are used to evaluate the impact of restoration projects through a combination of high-resolution image analysis (e.g. the detection of hedgerows and flower strips) and biophysical metrics. This integrated Earth observation (EO)-based approach supports the development of biodiversity certificates that are both science-driven and policy-relevant.

Visit Us at the Domino-E Stand

You can also find BIO-CAPITAL represented at the Domino-E stand at LPS 2025. While the two projects pursue different goals—Domino-E focusing on strengthening Europe’s Earth Observation infrastructure and BIO-CAPITAL advancing financial innovation for biodiversity restoration—they are connected through their shared communication partner, OIKOPLUS. This collaboration highlights the importance of strategic science communication in bridging the worlds of environmental policy, finance, and Earth Observation.

📍 Stand Location: F14, Level 0, Atrium of the Conference Centre

Whether you’re working on environmental finance, biodiversity monitoring, or EO technologies, we invite you to stop by, exchange ideas, and learn more about how BIO-CAPITAL is contributing to the transformation of nature finance in Europe.

Stay tuned for more updates from the LPS 2025 and follow us on our channels during the event week!

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“If restoration isn’t done properly, it could be problematic.”

Thomas Stollenwerk — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 14:22:53 +0000

The RESTOREID project aims at understanding the links between biodiversity, restoration, and disease spillover. Lucinda Kirkpatrick is the coordinator of the EU-funded initiative and a Lecturer at the University of Bangor.

Lucinda met online with BIO-CAPITAL’s Work Package Leader for Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation Thomas Stollenwerk (Oikoplus) and gave him an insight into the project work.

Thomas Stollenwerk: Lucinda, RESTOREID explores the link between biodiversity loss and human health. How did the project come about?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: I became interested in spillover risks in restored environments while working as a research fellow at the University of Antwerp. My research focuses on how human impact drives animal movement, behavior, and, ultimately, disease transmission. The key question is: How do our actions influence disease spillover events?

Thomas Stollenwerk: What do you mean by spillover events?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: Animals naturally transmit pathogens among themselves, but some can jump to humans. While there’s growing interest in disease surveillance, we must understand how human activities contribute to spillovers. I’ve worked extensively with bats, which often carry harmful diseases—not because they are to blame, but because human interference increases the risks.

Thomas Stollenwerk: How does this relate to environmental restoration?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: After COVID-19, there was a rush to restore environments with the assumption that it would automatically reduce disease transmission. However, there’s little empirical data supporting that claim. Landscape degradation impacts species diversity at both the community and individual levels. Simply restoring an area does not guarantee lower spillover risks.

Thomas Stollenwerk: How are biodiversity restoration and spillover risks interlinked?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: A diverse ecosystem naturally regulates disease by preventing any one species—or its pathogens—from dominating. When biodiversity declines, common, fast-reproducing species persist, which often tolerate multi host infections, and can shed more pathogens. The same applies to parasites: the ones that thrive are those best at switching hosts, making spillover to humans more likely.

Thomas Stollenwerk: Does biodiversity loss increase the risk of animal-to-human pathogen transmission?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: Yes. Human activities degrade landscapes and increase human-wildlife interactions. The surviving species tend to be those comfortable around humans, creating the perfect conditions for pathogen transmission.

Thomas Stollenwerk: Are there examples where restoration has increased spillover risks?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: Yes. In Brazil, changes in forest structure increased yellow fever transmission by altering interactions between howler monkeys, mosquitoes, and humans. If forest cover remains below 30%, yellow fever rates rise; beyond that threshold, they decline. Similarly, in Australia, deforestation reduced native fruit trees, forcing bats into urban areas with ornamental fruit trees. This increased their contact with horses, which then transmitted the Hendra virus to humans. Well-intentioned actions can sometimes create new disease pathways.

Thomas Stollenwerk: How does RESTOREID tackle these issues?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: We study what happens when environments are restored. Restoration takes time, and the outcome isn’t a return to a pristine state but a new ecosystem. If restoration efforts allow only a limited subset of species to persist, the spillover risk remains. We need to build truly functional, biodiverse ecosystems.

Thomas Stollenwerk: Is there evidence linking restoration to pathogen spread?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: Poorly executed restoration can increase spillover risks. Restored areas attract human activity—tourism, recreation, hunting—so contact between people and wildlife remains high. Additionally, restoration itself begins with disturbance, creating potentially risky conditions. RESTOREID aims to uncover how biodiversity changes during restoration impact disease risk.

Thomas Stollenwerk: Your project includes case studies across Europe and Africa. What role do these sites play?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: We carefully selected sites based on available long-term data. Some have been restored for 10, 20, even 250 years. We don’t conduct active restoration but compare biodiversity and pathogen diversity in restored areas versus degraded landscapes and pristine reference sites.

Thomas Stollenwerk: How do you study these ecosystems?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: We use acoustic monitoring to capture soundscapes rather than identifying individual species. This helps assess functional diversity. In regions like Côte d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where biodiversity data is scarce, this method provides valuable insights. We supplement this with environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, collecting DNA from vegetation swabs. Additionally, we employ a novel technique using carrion flies. These flies travel up to 200 m and feed on carcasses and feces, picking up DNA from various species. By trapping and analyzing them, we gain a unique perspective on local biodiversity.

Thomas Stollenwerk: Are these established or innovative methods?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: Some are well-established, but techniques like using carrion flies and large-scale soundscape analysis are quite new. Eventually, we aim to develop an online tool where users can upload sound recordings and receive biodiversity scores.

Thomas Stollenwerk: How do you assess potential pathogen presence?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: We trap small mammals to study pathogen communities, cross-referencing this with biodiversity and restoration age. This helps us identify relationships between ecosystem changes and disease risk.

Thomas Stollenwerk: Could RESTOREID help reduce the risk of animal-to-human disease transmission?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: Yes, through our mathematical model predicting how restoration impacts disease transmission. By analyzing species compositions and real-world data, we’re building a decision support tool to guide restoration efforts. This tool will account for spatial context, connectivity, and restoration size, helping minimize disease risks. For instance, restoring fragmented patches might increase risk, while restoring well-connected areas could reduce it.

Thomas Stollenwerk: I know, It can sometimes be difficult not to lose sight of the overall project idea in such complex projects. What is the overarching vision of RESTOREID?

Lucinda Kirkpatrick: Restoration is complex. If done improperly, it could be problematic. But if leveraged correctly, we can create healthy landscapes that naturally regulate disease, making ecosystems more resilient for both wildlife and humans.

Links:

The RESTOREID project website: https://restoreid.europamedia.org
Lucinda’s page at the University at Bangor: https://www.bangor.ac.uk/staff/sens/lucinda-kirkpatrick-672983/en
Lucinda’s personal website: https://lucikirkpatrick.wordpress.com/

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Satellites, Seeds and Sustainability: BIO-CAPITAL Meeting in Prague

Thomas Stollenwerk — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 14:04:56 +0000

At a pivotal gathering in Prague, the BIO-CAPITAL consortium advanced its mission to link biodiversity conservation with innovative financial and geospatial solutions.

The BIO-CAPITAL partners have met in Prague to review the progress of their mission: to develop models for biodiversity protection combining innovative financial tools and geospatial technologies. The meeting at the Czech University of Life Sciences, brought together more than 40 researchers, technical experts, and local implementation teams from five pilot regions.

Multidisciplinary projects allow participants to broaden their horizons. This requires mutual explanation and understanding.The thematic and methodological diversity of the BIO-CAPITAL project’s approach became clear once more in Prague – as did its challenges. After all, when environmental experts, satellite earth observation specialists and financial tool developers get together, they first of all have to explain the basic concepts of their respective fields to each other. This exchange is a defining feature of cross-sectoral collaboration. In the best cases, it is precisely at these intersections that novel insights and transformative approaches emerge.

At the heart of BIO-CAPITAL’s integrative strategy are its five Use Cases, which act as spatial focal points where diverse forms of expertise are applied to real-world challenges. These testbeds—ranging from Alpine forests to British river corridors—demonstrate how biodiversity outcomes can be linked with sustainable finance mechanisms.

In Austria and Italy, Use Case 1 is tackling unsustainable forest practices, particularly in timber extraction. Case studies range from deadwood management to mixed-species forests. BIO-CAPITAL aims to propose viable solutions that align ecological goals with the economic needs of stakeholders like logging companies. Use Case 2 in France has expanded its farmer engagement to over 20 participants. These “pioneer farmers” are experimenting with biodiversity-supportive practices such as hedgerows, grass strips, and wetland buffers. However, accessing financial incentives remains difficult, and new approaches are being tested to monitor biodiversity uplift through remote sensing.

In Romania, Use Case 3 is focused on agroecological practices in the southeast, comparing organic and conventional farms. Satellite imaging—at resolutions down to 30 cm—is being used to monitor changes, though current efforts focus on the meter scale. Use Case 4 in Slovenia is working in species-rich grasslands, with pilots inside and outside the Goričko Landscape Park. Despite strong ecological data, land abandonment and weak socioeconomic conditions present barriers to implementation. Pratensis, one of the partners, distributed local seed mixtures to illustrate potential restoration strategies. In the UK, Use Case 5 is centered on river corridors and wetlands. The Westcountry Rivers Trust is trialing incentive mechanisms and soil-based monitoring.

The Prague meeting marked an important milestone for BIO-CAPITAL. It provided valuable insight into on-the-ground progress and fostered constructive dialogue around methodological approaches. Equally important, it offered a rare opportunity for all project partners to meet in person—deepening collaboration and strengthening the sense of a shared mission. As the meeting highlighted, research and innovation are not solo endeavors; they are inherently collaborative. In BIO-CAPITAL, biodiversity protection is truly a team sport.

Many thanks to the team at the Czech University of Life Sciences for organising the meeting and for their hospitality.

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BIO-CAPITAL Partners with MCYR – Join Our Conference!

Thomas Stollenwerk — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 11:13:52 +0000

BIO-CAPITAL is excited to announce its partnership with the International Multidisciplinary Conference for Young Researchers (MCYR) 2025, reaffirming our dedication to supporting collaboration, knowledge exchange, and the professional growth of early-career researchers.

Organized by the BioResources & Technology Division (BRT) with the support of the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU), MCYR offers a vibrant platform for young scholars to showcase cutting-edge research and innovative solutions.

MCYR2025 will be held in a hybrid format, ensuring accessibility for both on-site and remote participants worldwide. This year’s theme, “Science and Innovation: Advancing the Path to a Sustainable Future,” emphasizes the essential role of research and technology in achieving sustainability and global resilience.

The conference fosters interdisciplinary dialogue by encouraging young researchers to present their work, engage in critical conversations, and explore collaborative responses to pressing global issues. By bringing together emerging voices from diverse fields, MCYR cultivates a rich environment for exchanging ideas, building networks, and advancing pioneering research.

Join Us at MCYR 2025!

Participation in MCYR is free of charge, offering a valuable opportunity to connect with peers, share your work, and help shape the future of sustainability-driven science and innovation.

Visit [HERE] to learn more and register.

We look forward to welcoming you to MCYR 2025!

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BIO-CAPITAL Consortium Meeting in Prague

Thomas Stollenwerk — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 10:47:05 +0000

17 Partner organizations from 13 countries meet in Prague for the BIO-CAPITAL consortium meeting.

The BIO-CAPITAL project was launched ten months ago to develop methods for finding new ways to protect biodiversity by linking satellite earth observation data with innovative financial market tools. Since then, the 17 project partners from 13 countries have started their work in the six different work packages.

The consortium will meet in the Czech capital, Prague, at the end of March. The project partners can expect intensive work days at the Czech University of Life Sciences, where the Biogas Research Team will host the meeting as project coordinator.

Over three days, the teams involved in the project will hold in-depth technical discussions on the implementation of their research and development projects. The first day of the meeting will be used to bring the numerous participants up to date and to inform each other about the status of the work packages and the five use case areas in the Alps, Southern England, Southern France, Romania and Slovenia.

On the second day of the meeting, working groups will focus on the next steps in each work package. Close dialogue between partners is important here – after all, the aim is to link concrete environmental protection work, biodiversity monitoring by satellite and financial instruments. The agenda also leaves room for informal dialogue, networking and getting to know each other personally.

After all, European projects can be carried out in large consortia in a strictly formal way, but only through personal networking do they become truly collaborative projects. This creates multinational and multidisciplinary teams that have a real impact.

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Joining Forces for a Healthier Planet: BIO-CAPITAL and RESTOREID Explore Powerful Synergies

Thomas Stollenwerk — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 16:48:05 +0000

In a promising move for environmental sustainability and public health, Hynek Roubík, coordinator of the BIO-CAPITAL project, and Lucinda Kirkpatrick, coordinator of the RESTOREID project, recently met to explore ways their projects could collaborate — and the potential is exciting.

With their shared focus on protecting biodiversity and improving human well-being, both projects are set to unlock fresh opportunities by combining their expertise in finance, geospatial technology, and ecosystem restoration.

Science Meets Strategy: Unlocking Collaborative Potential

The two projects bring distinct but complementary strengths to the table. While BIO-CAPITAL is driving innovation in green finance and using advanced geospatial tools to support biodiversity restoration, RESTOREID is delving into how healthier ecosystems can reduce disease risks for animals and humans.

During their discussions, Roubík and Kirkpatrick identified several impactful ways to join forces:

Geospatial Tools for Healthier Landscapes

RESTOREID’s ecosystem mapping research could benefit from BIO-CAPITAL’s cutting-edge geospatial analytics, creating more precise models to track biodiversity health and predict potential disease hotspots.

Finance Solutions for Nature and Health

BIO-CAPITAL’s innovative finance mechanisms offer a potential funding boost for RESTOREID’s restoration projects — demonstrating how investing in nature can support both environmental resilience and public health.

Knowledge Hub for Greener Solutions

The coordinators proposed the creation of a joint knowledge hub, bringing together experts, policymakers, and investors to exchange ideas on biodiversity protection and ecosystem restoration strategies.

Community Engagement for Lasting Impact

With both projects emphasizing social dimensions, the teams explored strategies to engage local communities — ensuring inclusive, effective solutions that consider social and cultural factors.

Space for Early Career Researchers

The 6th International Multidisciplinary Conference for Young Researchers (MCYR) is focused on fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and supporting the next generation of researchers on key topics under this year’s sub-theme: “Science and Innovation: Advancing the Path to a Sustainable Future” and can be a space not only for BIO-CAPITAL but as well for presenting findings from RESTORAID. More about the conference: https://mcyr.ftz.czu.cz/en

Next Steps: Turning Ideas into Action

To build momentum, the projects are considering hosting joint workshops, sharing research outcomes, and engaging key stakeholders in collaborative discussions.

By merging their strengths, BIO-CAPITAL and RESTOREID are poised to unlock powerful solutions that address biodiversity loss, support ecosystem restoration, and improve public health — proving that protecting nature can deliver benefits far beyond the environment.

This exciting partnership highlights the growing recognition that healthy ecosystems are key to a sustainable, disease-resilient future — and that smart investments can drive positive change for both people and the planet.

https://restoreid.europamedia.org/

“Combining expertise is crucial if we want to develop impactful solutions for biodiversity protection and ecosystem restoration. By collaborating with RESTOREID, we have an incredible opportunity to merge innovative finance mechanisms with ecosystem health strategies. Together, we can unlock investments that not only restore nature but also improve public health outcomes — a win-win for both the environment and society.” Concluded for us Hynek Roubík, coordinator of BIO-CAPITAL.

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BioFin and BIO-CAPITAL Join Forces to Accelerate Green Finance Solutions

Thomas Stollenwerk — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 16:42:11 +0000

In a move set to boost innovation in sustainable finance, two major EU-backed initiatives — BioFin and BIO-CAPITAL — are teaming up to fast-track research and collaboration in the rapidly evolving field of green finance.

During a strategy session, coordinators from both projects (Hynek Roubík from BIO-CAPITAL and John Garvey from BioFin) laid the groundwork for deeper cooperation, unveiling a series of joint initiatives designed to break down silos and drive impactful progress.

Building Bridges for Sustainable Finance

Among the standout outcomes of the meeting was the decision to open workshops to both project teams, encouraging cross-pollination of ideas. These workshops will cover critical issues such as mapping existing ‘green’ financial instruments and exploring innovative solutions for sustainable investment.

In addition, work package leaders from both projects will hold dedicated meeting throughout the year to identify shared research priorities and explore joint initiatives on key financial topics.

Leveraging BioFin’s established experience, the project’s specialized taskforces — covering sectors such as banking and asset management — will now be accessible to BIO-CAPITAL researchers. This move aims to accelerate knowledge sharing and amplify results.

Perhaps most exciting is the prospect of a one joint consortium meeting throughout the lifespan of the projects. Plans are in motion to combine efforts, dedicating a few days to individual project work followed by shared sessions to tackle overlapping themes. This innovative format promises to strengthen connections and fast-track breakthroughs.

This new partnership signals a bold step forward in uniting research efforts to develop effective financial instruments that support environmental sustainability. By combining their expertise, BioFin and BIO-CAPITAL are poised to unlock smarter, greener financial solutions for a more sustainable future.

For more details on BioFin’s initiatives, visit biofin-project.eu.

“Our collaboration with BioFin represents a step forward in driving sustainable finance for biodiversity protection. By combining BioFin’s established expertise with BIO-CAPITAL’s innovative financial solutions and geospatial tools, we can accelerate the development of impactful investment strategies that deliver real benefits for ecosystems and communities alike.” Concluded for us Hynek Roubík, coordinator of BIO-CAPITAL.

The post BioFin and BIO-CAPITAL Join Forces to Accelerate Green Finance Solutions appeared first on BIO-CAPITAL.

Financing Nature, Restoring Balance: How BIO-CAPITAL and RESTOREID Are Connecting Biodiversity, Economy, and Health

Thomas Stollenwerk — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 08:04:17 +0000

BIO-CAPITAL is not the only Horizon Europe project exploring the links between biodiversity and society. While BIO-CAPITAL develops innovative financing models for biodiversity conservation, RESTOREID focuses on the link between ecosystem restoration and disease prevention.

In this interview, Diego Ibáñez, Communication Manager of the RESTOREID project, and Hynek Roubík, coordinator of BIO-CAPITAL, talk about the synergies between their projects, their common goals and how stakeholder involvement is crucial to the success of the projects.

Diego Ibáñez: To start off, I just wanted to ask you if you could please introduce yourself.

Hynek Roubík: My name is Hynek Roubik. I work at the Faculty of Tropical Agricultural-Science of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, where I am currently serving as Vice Dean for Science Research and Doctoral Studies. In two months, I’m starting as a Dean of the faculty here. I’m also Director of the Bioresources and Technology Divisions.

It’s a research division focused on various aspects related with environment, environmental engineering, environmental sciences. My background is relatively wide, but also very specific within environmental and resource management, which is good, because our BIO-CAPITAL project also puts together a lot of different issues, expertise and stakeholders.

Diego Ibáñez: You brought up BIO-CAPITAL, which is why we’re here today. Could you please provide a quick introduction to the project? What’s the mission, the objectives?

Hynek Roubík: BIO-CAPITAL is a Horizon Europe project, which is putting together 17 partners. It’s quite a collaborative initiative, is aiming at integrating the biodiversity protection sector with financial indicators and satellite based Earth observation data.

Our aim is to find the ideal mechanisms for sustainable business models, which serve biodiversity monitoring and conservation, as well as financial advantages for the private sector. For us, it’s important to bring it biodiversity and finance together in a common understanding. In doing so, we have to take baby steps.

Now, we are at the level of preparing the baseline studies for understanding the situation and putting it all in form of some outputs, which can be useful for everyone. We are working on use case scenarios in different locations in Europe.

Diego Ibáñez: I think that’s definitely going to be a very interesting field of exploration. It very well links with the RESTOREID project I am representing. It’s also a Horizon project, and the focus is also on biodiversity, especially on restoration and on better understanding of the links between biodiversity, restoration and disease emergence. We also have a central focus on socio-economical aspect, but more on the part of civil society and especially policymaking. Let’s look at the complementarity between both projects. How do our projects complement each other, and do you see synergies?

Hynek Roubík: When I read about the RESTOREID project, I thought it’s very clear that we have a common goal of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration at the core, but of course the approaches are different, which makes sense because it has to be tackled from different angles.

Where the main synergies should lie is in sharing the analyses that we do, because it’s important not to do something over and over again, but to always build on something. Then, where I see a need for synergy, is the work with stakeholders and external actors, because. Joint efforts here are quite necessary, because we have to work with stakeholders effectively.

I think a big advantage can also be that some of the use cases in BIO-CAPITAL and RESTOREID are in very similar ecosystems. For example, I saw that you are focusing on wetlands, which we are doing too. The same goes for forest areas. I think here we can complement each other, because in our case we have the alpine forest, and you have the northern forest of Scandinavia.

Diego Ibáñez: I agree, especially with two things you mentioned: Avoiding the duplication of efforts, data and resources. And also with what you said about stakeholder engagement. It’s very much needed, but a challenge as well.

Our projects rely on stakeholders who are committed, and who can give a lot of feedback and input. It can be difficult to get them on board sometimes. In our project, we are developing a Knowledge Exchange Platform (KEP), which we hope will address this issue that many projects face. We’re trying to think it from a user’s perspective, so it will serve as a platform to not only exchange data, but knowledge, information, and network. Hopefully, this will be a boost to strengthen collaboration between projects, and create a bridge between stakeholders and projects. That’s what we’re working on right now.

Hynek Roubík: That does sound promising.

Diego Ibáñez: The BIO-CAPITAL project, started in June 2024, six months after RESTOREID. Are there already any findings, insights, achievements, milestones that you can share?

Hynek Roubík: I think that one very important achievement for us at this early stage is a report on the policy and financial framework for biodiversity protection investments. It’s a very comprehensive work, and a very important baseline for all the further work. It’s a detailed overview of some 150 pages – but it’s also very easy to read, I believe. It provides a very good overview of the current status of different regulatory frameworks on biodiversity, the different strategies which are out there, like the EU Green Deal, the Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the different Farm-to-Fork approaches, and so on, but also national policy regulations, directives and guidelines.

For our work, it was crucial to summarize all this, and make a comprehensive framework out of that, in order to understand the European sustainable financing framework and the regulation that influences it. The result is quite robust, allowing us to delve into the work with practical examples on use cases level in different regions. We can now very clearly say how our work fits not only in the EU policy framework, but also into the national regulations, which cannot be omitted when we want the models to really work in the end.

There’s also a chapter identifying the inconsistencies, barriers and challenges in the regulatory framework. That also gives you also an interesting perspective.

Diego Ibáñez: That’s definitely something very important for everyone working in this field. We have touched a bit on different types of stakeholders. We’ve mentioned policy and regulation, we’ve mentioned academia, of course. However, my impression is, that one particular group of stakeholders is a bit taken for granted, perhaps. That is the wider public, the general people. So I also wanted to ask if you have any concrete examples on how BIO-CAPITAL is going to benefit the wider public.

Hynek Roubík: Well, we work on the assumption that protecting and restoring biodiversity is already important to the public. Ultimately, I believe that the sustainable financing model for biodiversity conversation and restoration that we’re developing will benefit the general public. It will allow capital investment in biodiversity, and it will monitor biodiversity from space using Earth observation technology. This will help create transparency and accountability. This affects a very broad range of public stakeholders if it works.

Diego Ibáñez: Looking ahead, what developments or results can we expect from BIO-CAPITAL? What will happen in the in the following months? Are you looking forward to particular results of the project?

Hynek Roubík: One milestone we’re looking forward to, right now, is our project meeting here in Prague, later this months. That’s always very exciting. The discussions will hopefully motivate us and turn us into working bees.

Diego Ibáñez: I hope you have a good meeting! What is the one sentence, the one key message, that readers should remember from this interview about BIO-CAPITAL?

Hynek Roubík: In one sentence, I would say it’s important to keep in mind that biodiversity is not just an environmental concern, but it’s also an economic opportunity. And through collaboration with different stakeholders, policy, industry and research, BIO-CAPITAL is trying to find a way for more sustainable financial models that can benefit both nature and society.

Diego Ibáñez: That’s a nice closing statement. Thank you, Hynek!

The post Financing Nature, Restoring Balance: How BIO-CAPITAL and RESTOREID Are Connecting Biodiversity, Economy, and Health appeared first on BIO-CAPITAL.