Fundación Global Nature wins the LIFE Award 2026
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Press Release
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Mediterranean
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Press Release
On Wednesday 3rd June, our member Fundación Global Nature won the 2026 LIFE Climate Action Award for its work on Mediterranean wetlands. This is the most prestigious recognition of the European Union’s LIFE Programme.
The LIFE Wetlands4Climate project – led by Fundación Global Nature – has been awarded the 2026 LIFE Award in the Climate Action category, at the 20th anniversary edition of the awards. The LIFE Wetlands4Climate project focuses on the management and restoration of Mediterranean wetlands as carbon sinks.
The award, presented by a jury of experts from the European Commission, recognises this project as the most impactful in Europe in its category and marks a historic milestone for the organisation: it assesses that Mediterranean wetlands, when properly managed, are key allies in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. These ecosystems which have been neglected for far too long are now being given the attention they deserve.
Mediterranean wetlands at the forefront of climate action
The Wetlands4Climate project – implemented from 2020 to 2024 – demonstrated that well-conserved wetlands can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to climate change mitigation without compromising their ecological integrity. Throughout the project, scientific understanding of these ecosystems has been strengthened; land management techniques that reduce CO2 emissions have been tested; and methodologies for carbon footprint offsetting have been developed. The findings are already being applied in national and international policies that integrate wetlands into climate strategies.
This project has been implemented in wetlands across three autonomous Spanish communities: Tierra de Campos (Palencia), La Nava and Boada lagoons; La Mancha lagoons of Castilla-La Mancha; and in wetlands along the Valencian coast. These inland and coastal areas were considered for decades as wasteland. Today, they are proving to be genuine shields against climate change: when well managed, these ecosystems conserve biodiversity and capture carbon.
Wetlands4Climate has been coordinated by Fundación Global Nature in collaboration with the University of Valencia, the EFE news agency and the Valencia Climate and Energy Foundation, placing the Valencian Community at the centre of a Europe-wide initiative. It was the only Spanish project in competition for the LIFE Awards 2026 that made it to the final.
“The fact that a project on Mediterranean wetlands has received this recognition highlights the role of ecosystems that have been overlooked for years and which are key allies in the fight against climate change and in the conservation of biodiversity. I must also point out that, in countries like ours, this work is only possible thanks to funding from the LIFE Programme, the future of which is currently in doubt,” says the director of Fundación Global Nature, Eduardo de Miguel.
This award reinforces an area of work in which Fundación Global Nature has accumulated more than three decades of experience in the conservation and restoration of wetlands.
The LIFE Awards are the most prestigious recognition of the LIFE Programme, EU’s financial instrument for environment and climate action. The 2026 edition marks the 20th anniversary of the awards, which each year recognise the most innovative and effective projects from across Europe. Wetlands4Climate competed in the Climate Action category against finalists from other countries.