The North Sea’s natural beauty shouldn’t be taken for granted. Centuries of intensive use have taken their toll. Fish, birds, marine mammals and bottom-dwellers are struggling to survive. The urgency to actively strengthen the North Sea is growing. That is why the Nature Regeneration North Sea program is working to enable a resilient and healthy North Sea. To restore biodiversity and create space for sustainable use.
Our ambition for the coming years:
Underway toward a resilient North Sea
Our largest marine ecosystem needs restoring
35
nature-enhancing measures will be implemented
80%
of wind farms will apply nature-enhancing measures
15%
of the North Sea’s use will be sustainable
75
endangered animal species will have a better living environment
The five pillars of our work
Learn by doing
We discover what works through hands-on experimentation and pilots.
Monitor
We closely monitor marine life and our interventions to make a more targeted impact.
Roll out and scale up
We roll out successful initiatives on a larger scale to enhance nature across the North Sea.
Include everyone
We move forward together. We involve partners, governments and citizens in our efforts.
Go international
The North Sea doesn’t end at our border, so we actively engage with other countries.
Joining forces together
Nature Regeneration North Sea is an alliance between EcoShape, The Rich North Sea and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN). Through this public-private partnership, we work to restore balance in the North Sea ecosystem. We partner with a variety of stakeholders from the offshore industry, the NGO sector, and science.
Meet our partners
Nature Regeneration North Sea’s strength lies in connecting diverse parties who contribute to strengthening the North Sea ecosystem, each from the perspective of their own challenges and expertise.
Jeroen Vis
Program Manager, Nature Regeneration North Sea
We gained extensive practical knowledge about nature enhancement in offshore wind farms through The Rich North Sea. As an alliance partner in Nature Regeneration North Sea, we can deploy this knowledge on a much larger scale. That's urgently needed, because the North Sea desperately needs restoring.
Vera Bánki
Program Director, The Rich North Sea
EcoShape is a network of organizations that focus on Building with Nature: our “learn by doing” approach ensures that natural processes are used as building blocks for hydraulic engineering and infrastructure. Within Nature Regeneration North Sea, we apply this approach to develop innovations that sustainably strengthen marine life.
Jelmer Cleveringa
Management Team, EcoShape
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Our Projects
We’re working on dozens of projects that restore shellfish and marine life on the seabed and support fish and birds. This will strengthen the natural ecosystem in the North Sea. Find a selection of our projects here.
Explore our projects
Oesterrifherstel
Reef sounds for oyster settlement
Can we use reef sounds to encourage oysters to reproduction in specific locations? In this project, we investigate this question to get another step closer to large-scale oyster reef recovery in the North Sea.
Learn more
Monitoring
Innovative monitoring of undersea life
What is living underneath the waves? The North Sea is still largely uncharted territory. With innovative monitoring techniques, we aim to monitor sea life more efficiently, safely and affordably.
Learn more
Natuurversterking
Seagull populations in the Southwestern Delta and Flanders
Seagulls reveal a lot about coastal health. For years, their numbers have been dwindling, due to food shortages, predators and the disappearance of their breeding grounds. We aim to revive seagull populations.
Learn more