LIFE Natur’Adapt

As Europe’s ecosystems increasingly buckle under the pressure of climate change, a French-led project is showing how the continent’s protected areas can adapt—not just to survive, but to continue sustaining biodiversity and the vital services nature provides.

Launched in 2018, the LIFE Natur’Adapt project set out to tackle a troubling gap: while the effects of climate change on ecosystems are widely acknowledged, they have rarely been reflected in how protected areas are managed. In France, for example, fewer than 15% of site managers were aware of the risks climate change posed to habitats and species when the project began.

Over five years, Natur’Adapt worked to change that, pioneering a hands-on methodology that enables protected area managers to assess the vulnerability of their sites and develop adaptation plans in response. Tested across 21 sites in France, the approach has already begun to spread beyond the project’s original scope. Five reserves in Occitanie have independently adopted the methodology, and it will be further expanded through the new LIFE Biodiv’France project starting in 2024, including trials in French overseas territories and Natura 2000 sites.

One of the project’s key achievements is a collaborative online platform—naturadapt.com—now home to a growing community of over 1 300 protected area managers. It hosts practical resources, discussion forums, and toolkits in both French and English, supporting ongoing adaptation efforts across Europe. A toolkit for European site managers is also now available via Europarc, and a White Paper developed by the project team calls for stronger integration of climate adaptation into nature conservation policy.