EU recognizes projects against desertification in Spain, Italy, and Portugal in LIFE Awards

Brussels, June 4 (EFE) - The Italian DESERT-ADAPT project, which combats desertification and promotes ecosystem resilience in Spain, Italy, and Portugal, was recognized by the European Commission in the LIFE 2025 awards.

The initiative seeks to test a framework for addressing two of the most critical issues facing farmers, public lands, and communities in the Mediterranean basin: adaptation to climate change and the need to reduce and counteract increasing land degradation and the risk of desertification.

DESERT-ADAPT, coordinated by the Luigi Vanvitelli University of Campania Studies, but also involving the University of Extremadura and the municipalities of Hoyos, Valverde del Fresno, and Viveros Forestalis La Dehesa, won the award in the Adaptation category.

At the awards ceremony, held during the European Commission's Green Week, the EU government recognized Slovenia's LIFE Lynx project in the Nature and Biodiversity Protection category.

This initiative has brought together conservationists, hunters, and local communities to successfully reverse the decline of the Alpine lynx in the Dinaric Alps in both Slovenia and Croatia.

In the Circular Economy and Quality of Life segment, the award went to LIFE POPWAT, coordinated by the Technical University of Liberec in the Czech Republic, which uses a new nature-based technology to eliminate hazardous human-made chemicals from contaminated water in the Czech Republic.

Among the three finalists in that category was the LIFE LANDSCAPE FIRE project, which proposes a combination of traditional and modern fire prevention techniques to reduce large forest fires in Portugal and Spain.

The LIFE Awards celebrate the most outstanding projects under the European Commission's LIFE Programme, which since 1992 has funded more than 6,000 initiatives focused on environmental protection and climate action, with a budget of €5.4 billion for the period 2021-2027.

In the 2025 edition, the EU Executive introduced the special "Rising Star Recognition" category for projects that make an outstanding contribution to the circular economy.

This new distinction went to the Danish LIFE RE-ZIP project, which seeks to replace thousands of tons of commercial packaging waste with reusable, more environmentally friendly packaging in e-commerce.

By the time the project is completed in 2026, more than 120 million reusable containers are expected to be in circulation, saving 17,000 tons of cardboard and plastic waste and creating more than 300 jobs, the European Commission said.

jaf/cat/crf