Project
REDRESS - Restoration of deep-sea habitats to rebuild European Seas
The REDRESS project aims to provide a key contribution to EU commitments towards deep-sea ecosystem restoration. As part of a larger consortium, our work will contribute to generating governance and socio-economic data and tools to evaluate, plan and upscale deep-sea habitat restoration in practice. Additionally it will give insight into the governance of active and passive deep-sea restoration activities, as well as in the consequent related policies and politics on deep-sea restoration
REDRESS overview
Restoring and rebuilding the deep-sea
REDRESS aims to provide solutions for future restoration actions in order to contribute to EU and member state restoration efforts. The research in REDRESS focuses on habitats that have great potential to contribute to carbon sequestration and climate mitigation but have been degraded due to various impacts. The project will study vulnerable marine ecosystems (coral gardens, cold-water coral reefs, soft-sediment habitats, sponge fields and cold-seeps) and adopt and adapt cutting-edge solutions for both restoration interventions and monitoring.
Societal aspects of deep-sea restoration
WU researchers are involved in research on the governance aspects of deep-sea restoration (WP5) and socio-economic costs, benefits and financing of deep-sea restoration (WP4). Together with partners from the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR, Crete), the University of Aveiro, Galway University, University of the Azores, and SERE, we will provide insights into the governance arrangements of deep-sea restoration, and the related policies and politics. Over the next four years, the team will assess the state of the art of Deep-Sea Restoration Governance Arrangements (DSRGA) for active and passive restoration and compare these active and passive DSRGAs. We will additionally investigate how to enhance the institutional capacity building of different actors involved in DSRGAs and map deep-sea restoration industries from governance and socio-economic perspectives.