RestPoll is a new project which aims to permanently restore and connect pollinator habitats in Europe. The project began in October 2023 and will run for 4 years. The project is led by the Chair of Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology at the University of Freiburg. It aims to provide society with tools to reverse wild pollinator declines and to position Europe as a global leader in pollinator restoration. Research conducted in Hungary within the Bükk National Park Directorate's areas is led by Sándor Piross and Imre Demeter, research fellows at the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research (HUN-REN CER).
Restoring pollinator habitats
To counteract the decline of pollinators and thus pollination services, it is important to restore their flowering and nesting habitats. This is important for biodiversity in general and for agricultural yields and food security.
RestPoll will, together with stakeholders ranging from individual land managers to governments, focus on measures and cross-sectoral approaches to restore pollinators and their services. Central to RestPoll is the establishment of a Europe-wide network of pollinator restoration case-study areas and Living Labs (LL), which are unique hubs for experimentation, demonstration, and mutual learning. Restoration activities in the eighteen case-study areas in fourteen European countries are partly already set up by stakeholders in cooperation with RestPoll researchers or vice versa.
The RestPoll consortium combines expertise from sixteen countries ranging from natural and social scientists, twenty-three research institutions, one NGO, three businesses, three ministries and one national park. Stakeholders along the food value chain will be engaged through newly developed participatory approaches at diverse social, ecological, and political scales. The project partners are a team of smart and passionate creatives.
Kick-off in Lund, Sweden
The first meeting with all project partners will take place to kick-off the project and will be held on 28 and 29 November in Lund, Sweden. It is an opportunity for all project partners to discuss in person how to reach the ambitious project goals. The partners will share an overview of their work packages and certain topics related to data collection and policymaking will be discussed further. Alexandra-Maria Klein is coordinator of the project and currently a guest professor at the University of Lund. She is excited to launch the multi-actor restoration project. As she explained, “The project will support land-use transformation towards biodiversity-friendly and productive landscapes across Europe."
Launching RestPoll website
During the kick-off in Lund, the website for the project will also be launched: www.restpoll.eu. The website will stimulate knowledge exchange and include background information on the project and updates such as news, planned activities and milestones which have been reached.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme under grant agreement No. 101082102.
Pictures from Felix Fornoff