Project start: 01.01.2027
Project end: 31.12.2029
Sponsor: Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Biodiversity loss has so far not been halted by traditional, conservation-based nature protection and is being further intensified by additional global crises, above all the climate crisis. Seven of the nine planetary boundaries have already been exceeded – threatening the stability of the Earth system and, with it, the very foundations of human civilisation. The concept of Survival Ecology offers an innovative approach, but requires further concretisation and operationalisation. It calls for a new understanding of change, as well as a forward-looking, pragmatic approach to nature conservation combined with active intervention – as a basis for the survival of humankind. The SURVIVE project applies these innovative and transformative ideas to the German and European nature conservation context, developing a new conservation strategy suited to the conditions of the climate emergency – conceptually grounded and geared towards practical implementation. The overarching goal is to develop a future strategy based on the principles of Survival Ecology, in order to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services under the conditions of the climate crisis. Three sub-objectives are pursued: 1. Concretisation of the concept, using the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) for forest and agricultural ecosystems as an example; 2. Development of criteria and indicators for ecosystem assessment, including in relation to the NRR and the use of land as a resource; 3. Recommendations for implementation with regard to the legal framework and policy advice.

Project start: 01.11.2024
Project end: 31.10.2027
Sponsor: European Union