MARCO-BOLO’s WP3 aims to improve our understanding of biodiversity change, its causes across Europe’s freshwater, coastal, and marine environments, and how these systems are connected.

Through four land-river-sea case studies: Danube – Black Sea, Po – Adriatic Sea, Elbe – North Sea, and Guadalquivir – Atlantic Ocean, we can see that upstream conservation areas (e.g., Natura 2000 sites, Ramsar sites, national parks) can significantly improve downstream water quality, ecosystem health, and marine ecosystem services.

Using the Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts, Responses (DPSIR) framework adopted by the European Environment Agency, those storylines outline how human drivers such as agriculture, industry, and urbanisation create pressures that degrade water quality and biodiversity.

Over recent decades, the expansion of protected areas and EU environmental policies has reduced nutrient pollution and improved ecological conditions, particularly in the Danube and Black Sea. However, marine ecosystems respond slowly, and challenges such as overfishing, eutrophication, and climate change persists.

Read more in the associated deliverable: D3.4 – Report on effects of existing and future terrestrial and freshwater conservation areas on coastal and marine biodiversity.