EU Commission
On May 21, EU LIFE, the European Commission’s program to promote nature and environmental protection projects, will be 30 years old
The Global Nature Fund has successfully implemented eight EU LIFE projects since 2002
With “ELLA”, the European Living Lakes Association, the GNF and LIFE are making a promise for the future
A joint success story
The Global Nature Fund (GNF), which implements projects and initiatives for people, water and nature worldwide from its base in Radolfzell on Lake Constance, now has a twenty-year history with the EU funding instrument. Since the first LIFE-supported project “Living Lakes: Sustainable Management of Wetlands and Shallow Lakes”, with which the GNF campaigned for the conservation of precious European water ecosystems from 2002, it has successfully implemented or is still active in seven further projects with LIFE funding.
“It is no exaggeration to say that the projects funded by the LIFE programme go some way to defining who we are today,” says Dr. Thomas Schaefer, Head of Nature Conservation & Living Lakes at GNF. “With its support, the EU has accompanied us on our way to becoming a pioneer in international lake and wetland protection. And that’s not all: since the launch of the LIFE European Business & Biodiversity Campaign in 2010, which was still something completely new at the time, we have been able to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity in many companies. Today, this makes us a sought-after partner for companies that are looking for the right woody plants for biodiversity-friendly planting at their headquarters, for example, as well as those that want to organize their supply chains without deforestation.”
Diverse projects for biodiversity and healthy waters
The GNF projects supported by LIFE are diverse and cooperation has intensified in recent years. Most recently, “LIFE Boosting Green Infrastructure through Biodiversity-Oriented Design of Business Premises” (“BooGI-BOP” for short) for green company premises was launched in 2018, “LIFE Blue Lakes” for microplastic-free European inland waters in 2019 and “LIFE Insect-Friendly Regions” for the protection of insects and biodiversity at landscape level in 2020. The project “Constituting a European Living Lakes Association (ELLA) empowering Civil Society Organizations to enhance and support the protection and sustainable use of aquatic ecosystems and their related biodiversity”, the only project in Germany, has been running since November 2021.
“The fact that the EU Commission also looks beyond its European horizons with the orientation of the LIFE program is proven time and again: LIFE has supported one of our projects for the sustainable cultivation of shea and cocoa in Ghana, both of which are in demand as imported products in Europe,” says Dr. Schaefer. “We are particularly pleased about the support for a current initiative that points to the future: our association ELLA is finally giving European lake and wetland protection a firm institutional framework. In a way, we are returning to our first collaboration with LIFE in 2002.” In the European Living Lakes Association, funded by the LIFE program, various European environmental associations, coordinated by GNF, are committed to the preservation of water ecosystems – a signal of cooperation and confidence for the ecology and natural heritage of the continent.
About the Global Nature Fund
The GNF has been committed to nature and the environment from its base in Radolfzell on Lake Constance since 1998. As coordinator of the global Living Lakes network, GNF, together with over 130 partner organizations and 113 lakes and wetlands in 57 countries on all continents, promotes water protection, draws attention to the dangers that threaten lakes, rivers and wetlands around the globe and develops solutions for their conservation.
Contact us
Global Nature Fund (GNF)
International Foundation for Environment and Nature
Dr. Thomas Schaefer
Head of Nature Conservation & Living Lakes
Fritz-Reichle-Ring 4
78315 Radolfzell
+49 7732 9995 89
schaefer@globalnature.org
www.globalnature.org
