Scaling up seagrass restoration

To mark World Seagrass Day, we're delighted to share that Natural Capital Ireland (NCI) is a partner on the new Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) REBORN Project. REBORN aims to reinvigorate seagrass habitats and unlock their restoration at scale, as a blue-green infrastructure and natural capital opportunity.

Seagrass—also known as eelgrass—are plants that live in our estuaries and coastal waters. There are two species in Ireland, Zostera noltei and Zostera marina. They are Ireland’s only marine plants that produce flowers and seeds (EPA Marine Monitoring Seagrass Factsheet).

Seagrass captures carbon faster than tropical rainforests. It stores up to 18% ocean’s carbon, despite covering just 0.1% of the seafloor (learn more). Subtidal seagrass meadows are a nursery for young fish, supporting marine biodiversity and our blue economy. Intertidal meadows provide vital food for overwintering birds, such as the Light-bellied Brent goose in Dublin Bay. Seagrass also reduces coastal erosion during storms by trapping sediments. Click here to view videos of seagrass meadows near the Maharees and Tralee Bay in Co. Kerry.

Seagrass is in decline due to physical disturbance such as trampling, nutrient enrichment from agriculture and wastewater, invasive species, and climate change. Restoration faces challenges such as the limited impact of ad-hoc, small-scale cooperation, fragmentation of practical expertise across Europe, plus low awareness and capacity to protect and regenerate it. We hope to address some of these challenges in REBORN and the inclusion of seagrass protection in the Nature Restoration Plan.

REBORN brings together 11 partners from 5 countries—Belgium, Ireland, France, the Netherlands and Germany. Over the next 3.5 years, the 11 partners will collaborate to drive seagrass-related governance, practice and capacity-building. The ambition is not only to restore hectares of seagrass across North-West Europe, but to develop a replicable and scalable restoration approach that can serve as a reference model across Europe. NCI will support project communication, training course development, and the integration of REBORN’s work into the natural capital approach and accounting methodologies.

Jonathan Cooper, one of NCI's Directors, and Deirdre Lane, our Executive Coordinator, attended last week's partner meeting on Schiermonnikoog, a Dutch island. They are pictured on the right with Dr Juan Lugilde Yáñez from the University of Galway, and Dr Fiona Tomas Nash from the IMEDEA research centre.

It was fantastic to connect with the rest of the consortium, define a shared vision for REBORN, and learn about everyone's different skillsets. We also did initial planning for REBORN's pilot sites in Oosterschelde 🇳🇱, Arcachon Bay 🇫🇷, Killala Bay 🇮🇪, Province West-Vlaanderen 🇧🇪, & De Weser Ems 🇩🇪. The University of Galway is the REBORN project partner leading on the Killala Bay pilot site.

Fortunately, REBORN is not starting from ground zero in Ireland and exists in an ecosystem of other seagrass projects and experts. The University of Galway, including Dr Liam Morrison and Dr Juan Lugilde Yáñez, has been restoring seagrass through the EU-funded CLIMAREST project. The University of Galway is also a partner on the EPA-funded RESET project, led by University College Dublin. Coastwatch have been delivering citizen science research and advocating for seagrass protection and restoration in Ireland for several years. Other initiatives include the 2025 Seagrass Sessions in Tramore and the new cross-border Coastal Monitoring and Adaptation Planning (CMAP) project, which will look at seagrass as well as other coastal Nature-based Solutions such as native oyster beds. Seasearch Ireland also support seagrass monitoring and are hosting a webinar on18th March 2026 about Cork Sub Aqua Club's efforts in Oysterhaven.

For more updates on the Interreg NWE REBORN Project, follow our LinkedIn page and sign up to NCI's monthly newsletter. REBORN will continue until 30th June 2029 and we hope it will deliver lasting impact for seagrass in Ireland. Learn more about Interreg North-West Europe here.