On 19 February 2025, the Ecologic Institute hosted an online workshop on "Tools and Indicators for Coastal Wetland Restoration to Promote Climate Resilience in Europe" in the context of the EU-funded project RESTORE4Cs. The online event brought together leading experts to explore and discuss wetland-related policy targets and the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, EU actions to enhance wetland assessments and monitoring as well as indicators to measure progress towards EU policy targets on coastal wetland restoration.

The workshop began with a warm welcome from Ana Lillebø of the University of Aveiro. As scientific coordinator of the RESTORE4Cs project, Ana Lillebø introduced the main objectives and expected outcomes of RESTORE4Cs which aims to evaluate the effect of restoration actions on wetlands' ability to mitigate climate change and provide various ecosystem services.

Eleftheria Kampa from the Ecologic Institute followed with an overview of key policies relevant to the conservation and restoration of European coastal wetlands, based on the RESTORE4Cs inventory of EU, international and national policies.

Bruno Combal from DG Environment of the European Commission discussed the EU policy context for protected wetlands assessment and monitoring, highlighting methodological approaches for habitats monitoring, reporting on conservation status and the potential to improve habitats monitoring with earth observation and geographic information systems.

Yurena Lorenzo from the European Environment Agency elaborated on the restoration targets and implementation process of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, focusing on the target to restore free-flowing rivers and the natural functions of related floodplains.

To inform the discussion on tools and indicators for coastal wetland restoration, three key research impulses were provided by the RESTORE4Cs partners:

• María del Mar Otero and Christoph Schröder from the European Topic Center at the University of Malaga elaborated on the RESTORE4Cs proposal for indicators to measure policy progress with coastal wetland policy targets. Their presentation outlined eight policy outcome indicators designed to assess the status, trends, and policy targets related to coastal wetlands in response to EU policies.
• Anis Guelmami from Tour de Valat demonstrated the decision-support platform and toolbox for coastal wetland restoration which is being developed by RESTORE4Cs.
• Manuel Lago from Ecologic Institute presented options for sustainable financing of nature-based solutions and highlighted key challenges for closing the financing gap for coastal wetland restoration.

Using virtual polls, the interactive part of the workshop encouraged participants to share their views on implementation challenges and policy alignment needs for National Restoration Plans under the EU Nature Restoration Regulation. Participants’ contributions also helped prioritise the proposed policy outcome indicators and exchange views on how to achieve the integration of coastal wetlands in national policies and reporting.