The
Horizon Europe project BioValue began in 2022 and and progressed through to 2025, reaching its conclusion after 39 months of collaborative research and dialogue across Europe. Funded by the
European Research Executive Agency (REA) and coordinated by the
Instituto Superior Técnico (IST-ID), BioValue brought together eight partners from
Portugal, Germany, Denmark and Italy to
explore how biodiversity can become a driving value in spatial planning and policymaking. The consortium worked together to test participatory methods, novel planning instruments, and multi-level governance approaches.
Over its lifetime,
BioValue pushed beyond purely mitigative planning, seeking instead to
enable planning processes that proactively value biodiversity as an integral element of sustainability and resilience. Through its Arenas, the project engaged a wide range of actors - from local citizens and farmers to municipal governments and policymakers - to experiment with new planning tools, assessment frameworks, and institutional innovations.
Among its key achievements,
BioValue has produced a wealth of open resources: technical reports, infopacks, a conceptually grounded framework for biodiversity valuation in planning, and a comprehensive technical brochure, all of which offer practical guidance for planners, decision-makers, and future projects.
Final video
Through its three
Arenas for Transformation in
Germany, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
Portugal, Mafra and
Italy, Trento, the project tested
participatory approaches, discussed
innovative uses of planning and assessment tools, and
engaged with stakeholders from municipalities, farmers, NGOs, policymakers and citizens.
While
BioValue did not aim to implement large-scale changes, it provided valuable insights, methods and frameworks that can inspire future projects, policies and local initiatives. Its legacy is in opening new perspectives on how biodiversity can be recognised as a driver of sustainability and resilience.
Watch the final video here!
Technical brochure
Alongside the final video,
BioValue has released its technical brochure:
Towards transformative change for Biodiversity in spatial planning.
The brochure synthesises the
project’s conceptual framework and main findings, showing how spatial planning can move beyond mitigating biodiversity loss to enhance biodiversity’s value through existing planning, assessment and financial instruments. It highlights BioValue’s guiding ambitions -
safeguarding biodiversity, reducing unsustainable consumption and
production, and addressing socio-economic inequalities - and demonstrates how these principles were tested in the Arenas for Transformation.
Together, the final video and the technical brochure mark the legacy of BioValue: not a finished transformation, but
clear pathways and practical examples for planners, policymakers and professionals to adopt biodiversity-positive approaches in spatial planning.
Find out more in the single infopacks at the
resources of
BioValue website.
Download the technical brochure here!
Contacts
Project coordinator
Maria Rosario Partidario - University of Lisbon - Instituto Superior Técnico
mariapartidario@tecnico.ulisboa.pt
Project website: biovalue-horizon.eu
LinkedIn: BIOVALUE project
YouTube: @BIOVALUEproject