By Leonor Cesar das Neves, European Landowners Organization
A New Vision for Land Stewardship
Faced with the twin challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change in Europe, nature conservation can no longer rely on public protected areas alone. That’s why in the EU Horizon project, MOSAIC, we’re positioning Private Land Conservation (PLC) as an indispensable tool for achieving environmental sustainability in Europe. The MOSAIC project builds on previous successful initiatives such as LIFE ENPLC, LIFE LandIsForever and a longstanding collaboration with the International Land Conservation Network (ILCN); to provide a framework, dialogue and policy support for the integration of private land into broader conservation strategies.
Among the core tools developed under the MOSAIC Project is the MOSAIC booklet, an easy to read 12-page guide that breaks down the concept of Private Land Conservation. Here, we present the core themes of the booklet, its strategic relevance, and how its frameworks were put into action during the “Developing a European Policy for Private Land Conservation” June 2025 workshop.
The MOSAIC Booklet: Making the Case for Private Land Conservation
The MOSAIC booklet, titled Private Land Conservation in Europe, is more than an informative leaflet; it’s a call to action. Structured to appeal to policymakers, conservationists, and landowners alike. It summarises complex ideas in an easy-to-understand narrative, supported by visual and practical tools.
The main message is simple but urgent: nature conservation must go beyond public reserves to encompass the landscape mosaic of Europe's private landscapes.
What is Private Land Conservation?
Private land conservation is a voluntary effort to protect and restore biodiversity on private land. It complements legal nature conservation measures, such as national parks or nature reserves, by closing spatial and ecological gaps. Private land conservation is based on the principle of stewardship with a long-term perspective of sustainability. The booklet outlines several instruments of PLC, such as Conservation Easements or Land Stewardship Schemes.
At the heart of the MOSAIC Booklet is a multi-layered framework that helps policymakers and practitioners understand the full range of factors involved in successful private land conservation.
The Four Layers of Action
- Physical Layer refers to the geographic and ecological dimensions of conservation, including private land to support biodiversity corridors and ecological connectivity.
- Legal Layer: Harmonising laws across EU Member States to empower landowners with rights and recognition for conservation.
- Human Layer: Land is more than a commodity—it is a source of cultural identity, memory, and personal legacy, highlighting the relational and emotional dimensions of conservation.
- Financial Layer: Conservation can have costs - opportunity costs, labour costs, regulatory costs, and the often overlooked loss of development potential. In order for PLCs to expand, landowners need access to stable, equitable and long-term financial support mechanisms. Providing compensation and incentives that make conservation economically viable.
Each layer acknowledges that conservation is not just a biological or policy issue. It’s deeply social, emotional, and financial.
Why Private Land Conservation Matters Now
The booklet doesn’t shy away from the urgency of the moment. The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 sets ambitious targets: restoring degraded ecosystems, reversing species decline, and ensuring nature’s resilience in the face of climate change. Achieving these goals is impossible without engaging private landowners. Europe’s richest biodiversity often lies outside public lands, embedded in working farms, estates, forests, and meadows.
Without private conservation, habitat fragmentation will continue, endangering species migration and ecological processes. Climate mitigation won’t reach its potential. And the cultural landscapes of Europe may vanish under modern pressure.
The MOSAIC booklet makes a compelling case for scaling PLC efforts now—not later—through better policies, partnerships, and financial tools. Making clear that PLC is achievable and necessary.
MOSAIC Looks Out For The Personal, The Long-term and The Commitment
The EU policy lab within the MOSAIC Project makes a case for Private Land Conservation (PLC). For this to be successful it has its focus on the personal relationship between landowners and their land. Conservation is not just a political choice - it is often about heritage, identity and moral responsibility. These emotional dimensions are key to realising long-term conservation commitments.
By highlighting landowners' motivations - from building cultural heritage to caring about ecology - the brochure encourages policies and programmes to align with landowners' values, rather than override them. It's a bottom-up approach based on trust, respect and voluntary participation.
Conservation in Practice: The Role of OECMs
The MOSAIC booklet also showcases the concept of Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs), as defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity 2018. While these areas are not managed primarily for biodiversity conservation, they can bring tangible conservation benefits alongside their primary objective, retaining the economic viability of land and delivering biodiversity as a by-product. An example is agricultural grasslands, which, despite serving their primary goal of grain production, when sustainably managed, can be host to a number of species.
By recognising OECMs as legitimate conservation contributions, MOSAIC promotes a more inclusive and realistic model of environmental stewardship, one that does not pit nature against production.
The MOSAIC Booklet in Action: The June 2025 Workshop
The value of the MOSAIC booklet was demonstrated during an online workshop on June 16, 2025, organised by ILVO, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Eurosite and the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO). Titled Developing a European Policy for Private Land Conservation, the event drew landowners, policymakers, and conservation NGOs from across Europe.
During this workshop, the booklet served as both a framework and an inspiration for discussion. Participants used its core principles, together with the Nature Futures Framework (Nature for Nature, Nature as Culture, Nature for Society), to place their own priorities within a shared narrative structure. This model helped bridge diverse perspectives, from conservationists to farmers.
Lessons Learnt in The Workshop
- The policy should adopt a multi-value perspective and avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. The triangular model proposed during the workshop is a flexible tool for tailoring actions to local needs.
- Effective policies should consider market access, match buyers and sellers and fair profit-sharing. Long-term payments for ecosystem services, credit and innovative business models are essential for the upscaling of PLC.
- Landowners, managers, and foresters must be recognised for their rights, autonomy, and knowledge, involving them in solutions.
- There is a need to support better connectivity between the Natura 2000 site and the surrounding landscape by integrating infrastructure, agricultural and forestry planning objectives with multi-scale landscape models.
Towards a Multifaceted Future for Heritage Conservation
The MOSAIC Booklet is more than a report - it is a catalyst for change at a critical moment in European conservation. The Booklet provides a roadmap for transforming private land conservation into a leading, respected and powerful force in biodiversity conservation. It equips decision-makers with the tools to build smarter frameworks, and gives landowners a voice - and stake - in determining the future of their landscapes.
Through workshops like the one held in June 2025, this vision is becoming a reality. The conversations that took place are not only reshaping the way we think about conservation - they are laying the foundation for a policy that is as diverse and dynamic as the landscapes it seeks to protect.
Learn more at www.mosaic-europe.eu
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