Rural communities regenerating European nature and resilience – inspirational approaches from Communities for Climate (C4C)
- Rural Pact
- Rural Revitalisation Platform
- Resilient rural areas
- Prosperous rural areas
- Nature and environment
- Climate
- Soil health
- Land use
- Bioeconomy & circular economy
- Agriculture and food
Rural communities are demonstrating how locally led ecological initiatives are strengthening both biodiversity and community resilience. From agroecology and rewilding, to heritage crop cultivation and soil stewardship, rural residents are transforming landscapes – discover local examples from the C4C project.
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Read the latest edition of Panorama – the official magazine of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) – for a thematic piece highlighting the successes of grassroots regeneration.
Discover how:
- a local community in southern France is replicating natural ecosystems to create productive, sustainable farms;
- a German ecovillage is scaling up its agroforestry work;
- Romanian communities are restoring abandoned farmland into wetlands to mitigate droughts and floods.
Browse through the full range of C4C projects working on nature and biodiversity; circular economy; renewable energy; and sustainable water management.
These grassroots initiatives highlight that conservation is not passive preservation – it is active regeneration. Rooted in local knowledge and fostered by participatory governance, the approaches spotlight the link between ecological restoration and community empowerment.