📋 Tender Overview
Reference: LIFE23-NAT-HU-Biodiverse-City-LIFE/101148463
Acronym: LIFE23-NAT-HU-Biodiverse City LIFE
Start Date: 01/09/2024
End Date: 31/08/2031
Total Eligible Budget: 3,608,377 €
EU Contribution: 2,165,026 €
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Many European cities struggle with the challenges of unsustainable land use and urbanisation, which in turn negatively impact biodiversity. Urban expansion degrades and fragments ecosystems, reducing biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Despite rapid urban growth, Budapest remains a biodiversity hotspot because of its location in the Pannonian biogeographical region, home to important Natura 2000 habitats including grasslands and wetlands, which play a critical role in carbon sequestration, flood prevention, urban cooling effects and climate adaptation. However, unsustainable practices such as intensive agriculture, deforestation and drainage exacerbate the impacts, particularly on grasslands crucial for biodiversity and climate adaptation. In addition, human activities such as recreational use of green spaces continue to threaten these ecosystems.
Budapest, as a major European city, seeks to protect its remaining natural areas and serve as an example of integrating biodiversity into urban planning, and promoting sustainable coexistence between urban spaces and nature.
OBJECTIVES
The Biodiverse City LIFE project aims to protect and restore valuable habitats in the Pannonian region, including salt steppes, salt marshes, grasslands, woods and alluvial forests of Black alder (Alnus glutinosa) and European ash (Fraxinus excelsior). By promoting sustainable land use practices and raising public awareness, the project seeks to harmonise biodiversity conservation with urban development in Budapest. Protected species and habitats will benefit from increased biodiversity and enhanced ecosystem services, including water retention and carbon storage.
The project’s specific objectives are to:
restore and enhance natural and semi-natural grassland ecosystems in 3 peri-urban protected areas — Mocsáros, Tétényi Plateau and Koérberek — using traditional grassland grazing and mowing practices to support the habitats of protected species and improve overall ecosystem health;
stabilise and expand the territory of protected habitats, removing invasive species and halting unregulated land use;
reduce negative human impacts on urban green spaces by tackling root causes such as trampling and littering;
use the 3 project sites as demonstration areas for public engagement and education, community involvement and promoting sustainable interactions with nature;
showcase nature-based solutions for improving ecosystem services and climate resilience;
inspire similar initiatives in other European cities by demonstrating that improved urban resilience, air quality and ecosystem services contribute to a more sustainable and liveable future.
RESULTS
The project’s expected results are:
restoration of
