For nature to thrive, civic space must too

As Philea moves from its Year of Climate and Environment towards its Year of Democracy, there is an opportunity to recognise that these agendas are deeply interconnected. Today more than ever, nature and environmental restoration and democratic resilience should be viewed as interconnected philanthropic priorities. At Adessium Foundation, we support efforts to protect and restore healthy ecosystems, including the marine environment, and we fund work that strengthens an informed, open and democratic society. To secure successes and progress made, we need to ensure that there is a vibrant civil society capable of holding decision-makers to account. However, this can no longer be taken for granted.

Europe experienced the hottest summer ever recorded, with wildfires, droughts, heatwaves and all kinds of extreme weather.  These events highlight the urgency of ambitious climate policy and of protecting and restoring Europe’s nature. The European Environment Agency indicates that nature and climate are key to Europe’s resilience and prosperity[1]. Healthy ecosystems are essential to mitigate the effects of climate change, improve water and air quality and to halt further biodiversity loss. Yet at this moment when more decisive action is needed, rather than less, Europe’s environmental ambitions have been pushed almost entirely off the agenda. As a result, environmental organisations have moved from fighting for environmental ambition to securing the progress made over the past decade. 

Under growing geopolitical tensions and the authoritative Draghi report, the political focus has shifted towards competitiveness, security and the economy[2]. This shift is reflected in the EU’s Omnibus processes, through which many existing laws are reopened and amended, with the aim of simplifying regulation or reducing administrative burdens. Although the Commission maintains that this ‘simplification’ agenda will not lead to a weakening of environmental protections, the many omnibus proposals, such the draft Omnibus Regulation on Food and Feed which weakens existing safeguards for chemical pesticides, show a very different picture. Civil society organisations are struggling to respond to the speed and nature of these processes, which limit the opportunities for meaningful civil society participation.

Moreover, and even more worrisome, environmental organisations themselves have come under targeted attack. The 2026 Civic Space report indicate ‘recurring attempts by populist and far-right parties to delegitimise the activities and funding of civil society, oftentimes fuelled by unfounded accusations of the misuse of public funds’. This was seen at the EU level, and in at least five countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, and Slovakia’[3]. A coordinated political campaign is actively questioning the role of NGOs, claiming that NGOS do not have a legitimate voice to represent the public interest in public debate and in policymaking.  Environmental groups are characterised as unaccountable actors in democratic decision-making and their funding, independence and right to participate are questioned[4].

These developments signal a worrying and fast shrinking space for civil society to act.  This all matters for nature and the environment and extends to all areas of social impact philanthropy contributes to. Because when civic space shrinks, it becomes harder for citizens and civil society organisations to participate in decision making processes, giving room for private interest to prevail and making environmental and social protection more vulnerable.

Civil society needs to adapt to these new realities; breaking silos, forging new strategic collaborations, restoring grassroot connections, they all sound like the right thing to do to protect civic space. But adapting is not an easy thing to do in the context of growing funding scarcity, in a world where social media act as disinformation proliferators and in a difficult political context.

Despite these headwinds, we see a handful of initiatives in our environmental portfolio that offer the first signs of what adapting to these realities could entail. These initiatives show in practice how for example NGOs can deepen citizen engagement and increase public support for civil society and show how NGOs can build partnerships and alliances beyond their own silo or domain.

At the European level, BirdLife, EEB, CAN Europe, WWF and T&E represent one promising response. Instead of only aligning on specific policy files, these five key environmental networks are creating a collective operational infrastructure for the wider environmental movement. The idea is to link strategic information and campaign power, national mobilisation and grassroots activation in a way that single organisations simply cannot do alone. This coalition connects political strategy to national mobilisation and helps its national members build movements and mobilises citizens around a few carefully selected priority issues. We see the same dynamic and aspiration at the national level, where environmental organisations offer another example. Through the Nature Restoration Coalition, these groups combine expertise, advocacy and outreach to strengthen their collective influence on the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Law.

It’s early days for these initiatives, but they do show us that civil society is able to adapt. Philanthropy has an important role to play to enable these efforts. First, it can help secure the financial foundations of civil society when public funding is under pressure. Long-term, flexible funding allows organisations to invest in adaptation, collaboration and experimentation. It creates space for the long-term movement-building that is needed, next to the short-term policy work.

Second, philanthropy can support efforts to restore legitimacy and public support for civil society. This includes efforts to deepen engagement with citizens through initiatives like citizen science, grassroots organising and new forms of public participation.

Third, philanthropy can invest in the infrastructure needed to protect civic space, including legal support and protection against abusive legal claims, support for independent public-interest media and investigative journalism. To do so, foundations do not need to reinvent the wheel but can join existing initiatives, such as Civitates, or Philea’s Democracy Network to exchange knowledge.

Finally, it can bring together NGOs and stakeholders concerned with various aspects of the deregulation agenda, from nature, climate, food and public health, digital rights and transparency. Together, they can build a more coordinated response to the weakening of public-interest voices.

If civil society is expected to play its role in addressing Europe’s environmental, social and democratic challenges, philanthropy must look beyond topical issues and invest also in the conditions that make civic action possible in the first place. The future of nature protection, environmental action and democratic resilience increasingly depends on the same thing: a strong, trusted and well-resourced civil society.

[1] European Environment Agency, Europe’s Environment 2025: Knowledge on Environment, Climate and Sustainability, 29 September 2025

[2] European Council, Strategic Agenda 2024–2029, June 2024; European Commission, The future of European competitiveness: Report by Mario Draghi, September 2024.

[3] European Civic Forum, Civic Space Report 2026, 2026

[4] ClientEarth, Threats to Civic Space: Why We Need to Act Now, November 2025,