Restoration living labs

Relevant topic: HORIZON-NATURE-2027-02-02 — Living labs co-creating solutions for ecosystem restoration

I am interested in collaborating on restoration living labs that bring landowners, communities, researchers, businesses and public authorities together to test pathways towards resilient landscapes and sustainable livelihoods. My contribution would draw on 25 years of community development, environmental advocacy and local government experience in Tairāwhiti, alongside work with Māori landowners and enterprises developing economic opportunities from native species.

A central opportunity is to investigate transitions from erosion-prone slopes towards diverse native forests and other locally appropriate ecosystems. Restoration needs to be viable for the people who own, manage and depend on the land. Research could therefore examine how ecological recovery can be supported by employment, sustainable production, restoration finance and enterprises whose success depends on maintaining healthy ecosystems.

An Aotearoa component could be developed alongside European living labs, allowing partners to compare different land tenure systems, environmental pressures and policy settings. Participating communities would help define priorities, design interventions and evaluate results. Potential activities include identifying barriers to land-use change, testing restoration and enterprise combinations, and developing governance arrangements that sustain commitment beyond the funding period.

The project could assess biodiversity recovery, erosion risk, water quality and climate resilience alongside livelihood outcomes and community wellbeing. It would also examine trade-offs: the time required for ecological recovery, income forgone during transitions, pressures created by commercial harvesting, and the distribution of costs and benefits. Comparisons across sites could identify which approaches transfer successfully and which depend on local circumstances.

I could contribute to community engagement, participatory governance, policy experimentation and the design of enterprises based on native species. Desired partners include restoration ecologists, forestry researchers, environmental economists, local authorities and teams experienced in monitoring landscape change.

The intended result would be practical, evidence-based pathways that help landowners and public agencies move from restoration ambitions to sustained implementation. Any proposed sites would be developed with participating landowners and communities and positioned within a consortium meeting the topic’s living-lab and geographic requirements.