The two Horizon 2020 projects, REST-COAST and IMPETUS, joined forces and hosted a workshop on biodiversity restoration and governance on 16 September 2025 in Amposta. The event brought together scientists, administrators, civil society groups, and local stakeholders to address the growing environmental and governance challenges facing the Ebro Delta.

The workshop opened with a welcome from EURECAT’s Nil Álvarez, who is also an active participant of the REST-COAST consortium, followed by introductory remarks from Pilar Marín of the IUCN Mediterranean Cooperation Center and Cristina Sánchez of SEO BirdLife. They highlighted the importance of strengthening governance mechanisms to ensure long-term sustainability of ongoing and future restoration efforts.

REST-COAST experts played a central role throughout the session, as Nuno Caiola (EURECAT) outlined the project’s work on ecosystem restoration and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in the Delta. Later in the governance sessions, Pilar Marín shared the project's advancements in transformative governance, and Agustín Sánchez Arcilla (UPC, REST-COAST Coordinator) presented the co-creation approach embedded in the CORE-PLAT platform.

The morning discussions showcased alarming trends in habitat condition and species conservation, with inputs from SEO BirdLife researchers Irene García Celada and Marc Viñas Alcon, as well as climate impact assessments shared by Faye Weaver (IUCN). Participants collectively emphasised the need to prioritise sediment recovery, strengthen water quality measures, protect coastal morphology, and support economic sectors, such as rice farming, aquaculture, and salt production, that play a role in maintaining ecosystem services.

A dedicated session on NbS featured contributions from Giulia Costa i Domingo (IUCN), Nil Álvarez (EURECAT), and Carla García-Lozano (University of Girona). They presented approaches ranging from multifunctional wetlands in rice fields to dune restoration strategies. Stakeholders emphasised the need for NbS to be scalable, cost-effective, integrated into long-term management structures, and clearly distinguished from conventional “green engineering.”

The governance-focused workshops utilised REST-COAST criteria, developed under Work Package 5, to assess progress and identify gaps in the Delta’s governance system. Participants proposed launching new pilot restoration projects involving underrepresented groups, creating a supra-governmental coordination body with dedicated resources, strengthening land stewardship mechanisms, and ensuring that lessons from pilot projects feed directly into the broader Delta Strategy.

The meeting closed with expressions of commitment from local authorities, including Amposta City Council, and a shared recognition that coordinated, science-based, and participatory governance will be essential to securing a resilient future for the Ebro Delta. The REST-COAST team will integrate the insights from the workshop into its final project outputs and upcoming stakeholder engagements.