Garbamonshabitat restoration · research brief
NaturaConnect and the Trans-European Nature Network: the September 2026 milestone
NaturaConnect's 22 September Brussels event will examine how data, ecological corridors, and protected-area planning can strengthen Europe's nature network.
The event and the network behind it
Pathways to a Trans-European Nature Network will take place in Brussels on 22 September 2026 from 09:00 to 18:00 CEST. It is the final stakeholder event of NaturaConnect, a Horizon Europe project working on a more resilient and coherent Trans-European Nature Network, or TEN-N.
The European Commission says the event will look at how NaturaConnect's research, tools, datasets, and guidelines can continue to be used after the project's lifetime. The purpose is practical: help improve protected-area expansion, ecological connectivity, restoration, and conservation planning at European and national levels.
Protected areas need connections
A protected patch can still be isolated by roads, farms, cities, dams, or changing climate conditions. Species need places to feed, breed, shelter, and move. Ecological corridors and other connected areas can help, but they compete with existing land uses and need planning that respects people who live and work there.
NaturaConnect uses biodiversity, ecosystem-service, environmental-change, and land-use information to identify gaps in coverage, connectivity, and resilience. Its stated goal is not to draw a single perfect map. It is to develop scenarios and decision support that show where different conservation choices could work and what trade-offs they carry.
The policy link
CORDIS describes NaturaConnect as a project supporting the EU Biodiversity Strategy's ambition to protect at least 30 per cent of EU land and sea areas, with at least one third under strict protection. The project's event also links its outputs to the Birds and Habitats Directives, the Nature Restoration Regulation, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
These frameworks do not turn a map into a restoration project. Member States still have to choose measures, consult affected people, secure finance, obtain permissions, and monitor outcomes. The useful contribution from a project like NaturaConnect is a clearer way to compare options and make the assumptions visible.
What to ask of a nature-network map
- Which species, habitats, or ecological processes does the proposed connection support?
- What evidence shows that the area is useful, and how current is that evidence?
- How does the design account for farms, towns, infrastructure, rights, access, and local livelihoods?
- Who will fund, manage, and monitor the corridor after the plan is published?
- What will count as improvement, and when will the result be checked?
From European planning to a real place
A local group can use the event as a reason to document a fragmented habitat, a river crossing, a wetland under pressure, or a restoration project that needs a wider connection. Add the place, the observed barrier or opportunity, the season, photographs, and the source of any species or habitat claim.
NaturaConnect's formal project end date is 30 September 2026. Its lasting value will be measured by uptake: whether planners, conservation managers, funders, and communities can use the tools to make better decisions in particular landscapes.