Biodiversity : the nexus approach : EU-funded research on biodiversity and its interlinkages with water, food, health and climate change

Biodiversity and functioning ecosystems play a critical role in regulating the climate and the nutrient and hydrological cycles that are essential for maintaining clean water and sustaining food systems. They also help control pests and pathogens, and provide the foundation for traditional and modern medicine that support human health. This brochure showcases a selection of EU-funded research projects that deliver scientific knowledge, solutions and case studies on the connections between protecting, restoring and sustainably using biodiversity, and managing water, food systems, human health, and climate change. This 'nexus' approach to consider multiple systems in a connected way helps minimise trade-offs, such as avoiding conflicts between reforestation and food production, identify synergies and design higher impact policy solutions to manage natural resources and land and sea use, with beneficial outcomes across these key systems. This approach is also key to help the transformative changes urgently needed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. In December 2024, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will publish a thematic assessment on the nexus biodiversity, water, food, health, and climate change. The research projects below, supported by the EU Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe research and innovation funding programmes, are the most relevant in zooming in on different components of the nexuses.