Human activities and climate change are rapidly causing ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss, and threatening essential goods and services for human life. BioProtect aims to reduce these pressures using an innovative area-based management decision support framework (ABM-DSF). This framework will include methods and capacity building which will involve and engage local stakeholders, monitor and predict changes in marine biodiversity, map human pressures, prioritise areas for protection and restoration, and measure the ecological and socio-economic impacts of conservation actions.

These methods will then be demonstrated at five demonstration sites, from the Arctic to the Azores, in the Atlantic. Previous non-systemic approaches, which focused on isolated sector-based management and single spatial scales, have failed to stop biodiversity loss. BioProtect proposes a novel and flexible framework which will integrate different spatial scales and data sources, thereby incorporating perspectives and knowledge from a wide range of stakeholders, to support the implementation and exploitation of its solutions by relevant end-users.

Furthermore, BioProtect will consider “what-if” scenarios, including climate change, protection and exploitation strategies, and evaluate their ecological and socio-economic impacts.

Lastly, the project will deliver impact-driven solutions to address biodiversity loss and climate change, with the aim to reach relevant EU Biodiversity Strategy targets for 2030, including a substantial contribution to reaching the EU nature restoration targets.