Tracking Nature Restoration Progress Across the Greater North Sea Basin: New Insights from ICES

Thanks to funding from the UK, the Working Track Nature of the Greater North Sea Basin Initiative (GNSBI) recently asked the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) to identify existing ecological indicators that can track nature restoration progress across the Greater North Sea Basin. 

The aim is to help GNSBI countries in selecting indicators that can help understand restoration progress at a sea basin scale.

A core set of restoration indicators
Published in May 2026, and drawing on a workshop of experts from across all nine of the GNSBI countries, the ICES Technical Service report highlights an initial core set of indicators for key habitats and species that are shared by GNSBI countries. These include state indicators measuring the extent and condition of Sabellaria spinulosa reefs, maerl beds, salt marshes, oyster beds, mussel beds, and eelgrass, along with condition indicators for harbour porpoise and black-legged kittiwake. These are indicators that are used in local, national, and regional monitoring programs, and could allow for tracking of restoration progress from individual sites to the entire sea basis. 

Challenges to harmonised monitoring
The report also flags some remaining challenges, particularly that currently there is a lot of variability between countries in how these indicators are being used as well as some important gaps that need to be filled. This work helps to fill an identified a knowledge gap and strengthen cooperation in restoration planning and implementation in the region.

The gaps and challenges include monitoring methods, survey timing, and data reporting varying between countries, limiting seamless comparison. Greater harmonization of monitoring practices and assessment methods will be needed to fully realize sea basin-wide tracking. Some indicators also require further development before widespread use and agreement is needed to set thresholds for several ecosystem components, for example the extent and condition of oyster reefs.

Aligning with international policy frameworks
The report considers alignment with existing policy and regulatory frameworks including national regulations, OSPAR, EU legislation and the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, OSPAR, and EU legislation. Scale is another element raised in the report – how to be able to not only track site level restoration actions but understand the wider ecosystem recovery and broader biodiversity goals.

Supporting future collaboration
Supporting this work, emerging platforms like Horizon Europe Restore_WIKI and the UK’s Marine Enhancement Directory, along with forthcoming European restoration guidelines, promise to improve data sharing and standardize practices.

Next steps for the GNSBI Working Track on Nature
Following the report’s release, the GNSBI Working Track on Nature has met to review the technical service and plan next steps. 

This includes efforts to ensure wide dissemination of the report’s findings to restoration policy leads across the nine governments as well as using its findings to inform key actions within the track. This includes informing the newly formed Cross-border Restoration Task Group.

More information

• Full report: ICES. 2026. UK request on behalf of the Greater North Sea Basin Initiative (GNSBI) to explore existing indicators to track nature restoration progress across the Greater North Sea Basin. In Report of the ICES Advisory Committee, 2026. ICES Advice 2026, sr.2026.07, https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.advice.32324070
• Report of the underlying workshop: ICES. 2026. Workshop to Identify Indicators to track nature restoration across the Greater North Sea Basin (WKRestore_GNS). ICES Scientific Reports. 8:33. 67 pp. https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.32315535

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