The event organised by WaterLANDS and by Wetlands International Europe will explore the EU policy context relating to water resilience, set the scene for wetlands conservation and restoration, and discuss benefits for disaster risk reduction. It will also highlight wetland-based solutions applied throughout Europe to boost water storage capacities, mitigate floods, fires, or pollution.

Register: Eventbrite registration – feel free to circulate the invitation among your networks. Registration to join in person, OR online (Teams).

The EU and Member States must invest in conserving and restoring wetlands. This should be a key strategy to contribute to their climate commitments and to reduce and mitigate disaster risks. A first part of the event will discuss how governance, policy, financing, must be mobilised at full scale. The second part of the event aims to inform about nature-based solutions offered by wetlands, what needs to be done at the EU level to upscale such solutions, and highlight case examples to convince policymakers, investors, academia, and civil society of the benefits of wetlands restoration for water resilience.

Wetlands store and purify water, harbour unique biodiversity, and are among the most efficient carbon-storing ecosystems. We urgently need to scale up the safeguarding and restoration of wetlands. Implementing nature-based solutions, including safeguarding and restoring wetlands, holds the key to one-third of the climate solution. Wetlands are also multifunctional nature-based solutions to mitigate soil erosion, runoff, floods, droughts. They offer water management ecosystem services that enhance the resilience to floods, reduce the severity or duration of droughts, filter and mitigate inorganic pollution.

#WaterWiseEU

WETLANDS SOLUTIONS FOR WATER RESILIENCE AND DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

Agenda

14:00 - Opening and speech from Wetlands International Europe Director

PART I, 14:00 to 15:00 - WETLANDS SOLUTIONS FOR WATER RESILIENCE IN THE EU CONTEXT

Roundtable discussion, questions and exchange with audience; Moderation by Wetlands International Europe

Topics: Wetlands conservation and restoration in the EU, Policies and the EU Green Deal (Common Agricultural Policy, Nature Directives, proposals for a Nature Restoration Law, Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive); Climate Resilience initiative from the EU and European Commission Communication on Managing climate risks – protecting people and prosperity, European Environment Agency’s Climate Risk Assessment,

Contributors: WaterLANDS coordinator, DG AGRI or CLIMA, European Environment Agency; to be confirmed: Member State or UNDRR Europe representative

15:10 - 10 minutes Break

PART II, 15:20 to 16:40 - PROMOTING SOLUTIONS THROUGHOUT EUROPE

Short presentations and exchanges with audience;

Moderation by Wetlands International Europe

Applied solutions for present and future scenarios: Mediterranean wetlands restoration; wetlands restoration addressing multi-hazards risks; Enabling Factors: investments and finance in peatlands restoration

Contributors: WaterLANDS Mediterranean sites, Landscape Finance Lab; to be confirmed: Solutions for pollutant removal from agricultural wetlands; multi-hazard, multi-sector, and systemic risk management;

16:45 Concluding remarks followed by cocktail