On Monday, 11 November 2024, the partners of the LIFE ProForPES project met in Padua, Italy, at the invitation of the TESAF Department of the University of Padua (Dipartimento Territorio e Sistemi Agro-Forestali) for the second monitoring meeting with Riccardo Giandrini, the monitoring officer responsible for the project.

This meeting was an important one to assess the progress made so far, reflect on the results achieved and harmonise the project's medium and long-term goals.

In recent months, the project has made significant progress, including

• The publication of the "Analysis of PES and PES-like mechanisms in Europe" by BOKU (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna). This report provides an overview and analysis of data from 108 case studies of PES systems across Europe and is available for download on our website in the "Project results" section.
• The ongoing work of Etifor | Valuing Nature on a SWOT analysis report, which will be finalised in early 2025. This report will summarise the results and experiences from PES and PES-like programmes in Europe, based on selected case studies from national experiences. It will include a comprehensive SWOT analysis and will serve as an important background for the design of future funding programmes under Work Package 4: Guidelines and recommendations for future funding programmes.

About LIFE ProForPES

LIFE ProForPES is a research project co-funded by the European Commission's LIFE programme. The project examines the readiness and feasibility of integrating PES and PES-like programmes into the EU financial framework and state aid mechanisms. Through an in-depth institutional analysis, the project aims to close existing gaps and identify opportunities within these frameworks to support Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). The LIFE programme is the EU's funding instrument for environmental and climate action. The acronym stands for L'Instrument Financier pour l'Environnement (LIFE).

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A big thank you to all project partners for their contributions: Dipartimento TESAF Università degli Studi di Padova, EFI - European Forest Institute, HNEE - Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Etifor | Valuing Nature, BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna.

Together we are shaping the future of sustainable financing of ecosystem services!

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