Six million euros to develop tools for a more sustainable use of ecosystems

English version: Diana Taborda

The University of Coimbra (UC) is part of a European project that focuses on developing tools for a more sustainable use of ecosystems. Helena Freitas, full professor at the Department of Life Sciences (DCV) of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the UC (FCTUC) and researcher at the Centre for Functional Ecology, is the project's national coordinator, which has now been granted over six million euros.

Helena Freitas explains that "the project Towards Sustainable Land-use Strategies in the Context of Climate Change and Biodiversity Challenges in Europe (Europe Land) focuses on integrating resources from the natural and social sciences to identify, develop, test and implement integrated tools to improve understanding of the factors underlying land-use decisions, as well as stakeholder awareness and engagement in terms of climate change and biodiversity challenges”.

According to Professor Freitas, “this project aims to fill specific gaps associated with integrated indicators to monitor land and resource use, awareness raising effects and behavioural typologies for a more sustainable use of ecosystems across Europe, as well as interactive tools to explore different scenarios and to involve participatory approaches.”

“Europe Land” is a Horizon Europe project that also includes institutions from Germany, Greece, Estonia, Denmark, Romania, Poland, Latvia, Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic.