NbS et Restoration: 2 themes at the heart of PPI 7

Officially launched in mid-2025 at the last IUCN World Conservation Congress, PPI 7 still has four years ahead of it, with a strong ambition: to support around 80 projects in 26 countries across Central and West Africa.

After a first committee dedicated to nature conservation in the broad sense, which selected 13 new projects for nearly €390,000 (discover them here), we were very pleased to convene two new PPI 7 selection committees at the end of September 2026, dedicated to Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and nature restoration.

Why these two themes?

👉 NbS are taking an increasingly important place on international agendas, notably within the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Yet civil society organisations still rarely draw on them spontaneously.

The experience of PPI 6 showed us the value of a dedicated mechanism combining funding and methodological support, notably based on the IUCN Global Standard. With this call, we therefore wish to build on this momentum and help CSOs gradually strengthen their expertise on this theme.

👉 Nature restoration, for its part, is featured for the first time as a specific PPI theme. This priority is also gaining ground in international frameworks, while many CSOs in our network are already leading restoration initiatives.

The aim is therefore to better structure the support we provide them and to draw on the technical expertise available within the French Committee for IUCN and its network.

🎯 In practical terms, this committee will select:
• 5 NbS projects, with up to €100,000 in funding per project;
• 4 restoration projects, with up to €75,000 per project.

That is up to €800,000 committed to these two themes.

These are the first calls of this new phase specifically intended for our Historical Partners. Applicant organisations also received support from our Organisational Development Officers to help them design and consolidate their projects.

🙏 Thank you to the committee members for their expertise and commitment (NbS Selection Committee Members 2026; Restoration Selection Committee Members 2026). Your perspectives allow us to cross-check assessments and make our choices as objective as possible, in a context where resources remain limited.

This support for civil society organisations is all the more important in the current international context, marked by declining public funding, the questioning of official development assistance and strong geopolitical tensions.

Through the PPI, we therefore continue to support the organisations that, on the ground, make a tangible contribution to biodiversity conservation and to the search for practical solutions to environmental challenges.