One of the expected results is to establish a new funding framework for expanding public and private finance opportunities to support private land conservation in Spain and the rest of the European Union, including a collection of best examples and demonstrative innovations on land stewardship, especially in terms of innovative financing tools that may allow the development of conservation and restoration projects based on land stewardship strategies.
The objective is to expand the use of innovative tools for financing nature conservation and restoration, promoting land stewardship projects that fosters innovation, facilitates the generation of alliances and partnerships, and promotes funding opportunities.
One of the workstreams of LIFE STEWARDSHIP focuses on expanding and diversifying the funding opportunities available for land stewardship initiatives.
To achieve this, the project explores and analyses innovative initiatives and best funding practices in Spain, across Europe, and around the world:
Public funding: grants, tax incentives, environmental or tax reductions.
Private funding: crowdfunding, environmental sponsorship, environmental credit markets, offset measures, certifications, bonds or green investments, impact funds, blended finance, or corporate social responsibility strategies.
Income from territory-linked products and services: differentiated marketing, ecotourism, eco-fees, an other mechanisms that connect local economies with conservation efforts.
The project involves stewardship entities, public administrations, companies, experts, and other stakeholders to analyse, select and implement innovation conservation and restoration projects to become lighthouses, pilot examples to expand new financing models and new private-public collaboration alliances for land conservation and restoration.
This work includes specialised workshops on different financial instruments and sectors and the publication of manuals, technical papers, and practical tools that help assess which funding formulas are best suited to each specific contexts.
The project also aims to mobilise funds to finance land stewardship initiatives. It does so through Biodiversity Foundation of MITECO calls for proposals, by identifying new public funding opportunities, and by supporting stewardship entities to take part in European-funded programmes, such as Horizon Europe or Interreg. In addition, LIFE STEWARDSHIP promotes synergies with other co-financing systems and works to diversify the range of public and private actors involved in land stewardship
LIFE STEWARDSHIP will implement what have been called Innovation Lighthouses, a set of
practical pilot projects
Hectares
Provinces
designed to test and validate the innovative financing tools identified. The development of these projects is expected to cover at least 5,000 hectares in 15 provinces, and at least seven of them are expected to have an impact on conservation objectives of the Birds and Habitats Directives.