The second Science-EU Policy Dialogue, co-organized by Europe-LAND, MOSAIC and PLUS Change. The online event will facilitate the exchange between HE research projects on land-use and EU policy officers to discuss policy-relevant project outputs, to connect and build synergies.

Background:

Land-use changes are a key driver of challenges such as food security, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Understanding land-use dynamics and evaluating land management practices at various levels are crucial steps towards achieving transformative change. Modern strategies must balance the interests of key stakeholders while considering both conflicts and synergies that influence current and future land-use decisions in order to achieve socially and ecologically beneficial outcomes. The first “EU Science Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Land Use and Management in Europe” took place on April 16, 2024, and offered a platform for EU projects and EU policy makers to present and discuss research contributions and policy needs related to EU land use and land management aspects.

In close collaboration with our sister projects PLUS Change and MOSAIC, Europe-LAND is now preparing for the second round to be organized on 29 April 2025. The goal remains to make available a European platform for scientific and political exchange, bringing together key land-use stakeholders to foster dialogue on sustainable land use and management. Ultimately, the annual virtual format facilitates the shared understanding of the multi-level and intersectoral, i.e. very diverse, perspectives and needs of both policymakers and scientists, while also considering social justice and equity concerns that are a key ingredient of socially responsible policy making.

In this second dialogue, we want to highlight in more depth potential contributions in support of the new EU Nature Restoration Law and related EU land use legislation and present how land use-related EU research projects are engaging with this new policy and contributing actively to it. For this, we will call for interested EU projects to join us in April 2025 to showcase and discuss on this platform how their scientific results and activities may facilitate implementation and further development of EU land use policy.

Are you involved in a HE (or similar) research project on sustainable land-use and biodiversity conservation? Or do you work for one of the EU organisations involved in policy making? Then have your say!

Register now to join the event here.

Agenda

9:30-9:45 Official Welcome and Introduction – Dr Franziska Wolf (Europe-LAND) Prof Dr Julia Leventon (PLUS Change), Dieter Cuypers (MOSAIC)

9:45-10:00 Keynote 1: “The relevance of Science-Policy interaction for EU policy making” (working title) – Dr. Karen Fabbri, Deputy Head of the Science for Policy Advice, Advice and Ethics Unit

10:00-10:15 Keynote 2: “The Nature Restoration Law – an opportunity amongst risks?”  – Dr Guy Pe’er, Group lead on “Agriculture and Ecosystems”, Dept. Biodiversity and People at: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig and  Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)

10:15-10:30 Keynote 3: “Enhancing Europe’s land carbon sink, status, challenges and opportunities” – Linde Zuidema, Expert, Climate Neutrality and LULUCF, European Environment Agency (EEA)

10:30-10:35 Introduction into the interactive sessions

10:35-11:15 Interactive Session A: Land Use Policy

Three flashlight presentations followed by interactive discussion round

a) “Policy incentives and instruments related to land-use decisions – Reflections on defining appropriate assessment criteria” – Prof. Joanna Ejdys, Dr. Joanna Godlewska, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland (Europe-LAND)

b) “Causal-link diagrams that shape land use – exploring drivers of land use” – Edvin Andreasson (PLUS CHANGE)

11:15-11:55 Interactive Session B: Land Use Solutions

a) “Negotiating solutions through creativity in the PLUS Change project” – Prof. Julia Leventon, Department of Human Dimensions of Global Change at the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (PLUS Change)

b) “The Europe-LAND toolbox – First insights of potential use cases” – Prof. Nikolaos Theodossiou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (Europe-LAND)

c) “Introducing the MOSAIC Digital learning environment” – Dieter Cuypers (MOSAIC)

11:55-12:00 Short conclusions – Prof Julia Leventon, PLUS CHANGE Coordinator, Department of Human Dimensions of Global Change at the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences