2026/06/04 by Pilar Marin, Naomie Kayitesi, Natascha Wahlberg Wahlberg · 1 voice
Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Coastal and Marine Management #Coastal wetland ecosystem dynamics #Coastal and Marine Dynamics
paper · doi:10.3897/arphapreprints.e202551
openalex publication_date 2026/06/04 · openalex created_date 2026/06/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Nature restoration is becoming a central priority in global and European environmental agendas, including the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (Target 2), and the Nature Restoration Regulation and the Green Deal of the European Union, which together set ambitious objectives to restore ecosystems by 2030. Coastal areas, as highly dynamic land-sea interfaces, are among the most vulnerable environments, having experienced significant long-term degradation. As a result, large-scale restoration is emerging as a key strategy for climate change adaptation, biodiversity recovery, and risk reduction. In this context, large scale restoration initiatives and projects, such as REST-COAST (Large scale RESToration of COASTal ecosystems through rivers to sea connectivity), are becoming increasingly relevant, demonstrating how Nature-based Solutions can support coastal resilience, ecosystem recovery and climate adaptation, and are expected to play a key role in shaping future coastal management efforts. Ensuring that restoration actions are effective, sustainable, and beneficial for both nature and society, requires alignment with Nature-based Solutions approaches. The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based SolutionsTM provides a robust and practical framework to guide the design, assessment and improvement of such interventions, supporting better decision-making, managing trade-offs, and enabling scaling up and replication. This report presents the application of the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions across the nine Pilot Sites of the REST-COAST project. Using a structured and comparable methodology, the assessment evaluates the alignment of restoration interventions with the criteria and indicators of the NbS Standard, identifying strengths, gaps and opportunities for improvement. Overall, the results show strong performance in the identification of societal challenges and in ecological design and monitoring. However, recurring challenges remain across Pilot Sites, particularly in ensuring long-term financial sustainability, strengthening inclusive and empowering governance, and systematically addressing trade-offs and risk management. These findings highlight the need to move beyond technically sound pilot interventions towards more institutionalised, scalable, and durable restoration approaches. The lessons derived from REST-COAST provide a valuable evidence base to inform future coastal restoration initiatives and strengthen the application of Nature-based Solutions in complex socio-ecological systems.