“LandShift represents a bold step toward transforming how we manage land use across Europe. By combining advanced technologies with community collaboration, we aim to create solutions that not only restore ecosystems and combat climate change but also empower communities to thrive in harmony with nature.”
Ioannis Varvaris – Scientific Coordinator, Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence
The alarming decline in net removals within the LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry) sector presents a significant challenge to advancing climate mitigation efforts. However, the sector offers considerable untapped potential for driving climate action through integrated strategies. By harnessing the diverse dimensions of land use and management, co created solutions can be developed to enhance carbon sequestration and strengthen ecosystem resilience.
To address these challenges, our LandShift project was created!
Specifically, the project aims to support climate neutrality in the land-use sector by 2035 through innovative, evidence based strategies that promote balanced trade-offs in land use among objectives such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, food and biomass production, and biodiversity protection.
It introduces a comprehensive framework aimed at supporting the co-development of regional strategic roadmaps that effectively balance socio-economic and environmental objectives. Through a synergistic and cohesive approach, LandShift aligns with all relative European Union key policies, such as the European Green Deal and New European Bauhaus (NEB), working to achieve climate neutrality and assist in the EU’s goal of removing 310 million tons of CO2 by 2030 through land-based actions and community collaboration.
The project was officially launched at the kick-off meeting in November 2024 in Paphos, Cyprus. All project partners, coming from 9 countries (Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and Ukraine) were present at the meeting, where they were able to present themselves, learn about each other, and build connections to facilitate collaboration in the context of the project. There was a strong emphasis on aligning vision, outlining goals, and grounding activities in the wider objectives of the project and overarching goal of fostering sustainable development. Now, the project is in its implementation phase, focusing on gradually testing solutions in its Living Spaces and engaging local communities through workshops and co-creation activities.
Indeed, LandShift’s added value lies in its integrated approach to tackling land-use challenges. A key innovation of the project is the development of Data Cubes—advanced tools that integrate diverse datasets to support monitoring, reporting, and decision-making processes. In a wider context, LandShift aims to become a leading example of climate-resilient land-use management, showing how to balance nature protection with human development. By creating a network of ‘Lighthouses for Climate-Resilient Land-Use Management’, the project will demonstrate how land can be used efficiently, ecosystems restored and protected, and communities strengthened to face climate change.
