About RESTORE

RESTORE is a partnership project between 7 organisations across NW Europe, co-financed by the EU Interreg IVB programme for NW Europe.

The project was active between September 2012 and November 2015. During this time it developed a framework for restoring minerals sites (quarries) to provide benefits for biodiversity, local people and local economies. This will help improve the sustainability of NW Europe by reversing biodiversity declines, protecting designated nature sites, enhancing landscapes, providing green infrastructure and improving quality of people's lives.

The importance of the natural environment is recognised by policy makers throughout the EU, but delivering environmental benefits in parallel with economic development is a key challenge. Partners believe that restoring quarries — which provide raw materials crucial to the economy of NW Europe — to be havens for wildlife and people is a win-win that aligns policies for both economic and environmental improvement.

RESTORE has four strands: it demonstrates what it is possible to achieve through pilots and case studies. It reviews existing policies in NW Europe and showcases best practice. It is evaluating the benefits to society that can come from nature focussed restoration. It is developing an interactive tool to help with decision making in respect of the future of minerals sites.