The EU Council of Ministers this week formally adopted the first of its kind regulation on nature restoration. The new law aims to put measures in place to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.

It sets specific, legally binding targets and obligations for nature restoration in each of the listed ecosystems – from terrestrial to marine, freshwater and urban ecosystems.

Environment campaigners have welcomed the ‘historic’ development, but some are warning that its success and ambition is threatened by inaction on pesticides, following the scrapping earlier this year of the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (SUR) bill amid claims by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that it had “become a symbol of polarisation”.

More than 1 million people across the EU have called for measures to restore biodiversity through the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) Save Bees and Farmers. Commenting on this week’s events, Martin Dermine, main citizens representative of the ECI, said: “This is a historic step. Measures are now adopted that can become an important tool in the fight against the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis. This should go together with the urgent reduction of pesticide use, a problem that is still not addressed.” 

He saids that “Ursula  von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP) had “conducted an unprecedented disinformation campaign against the EU nature conservation package, thereby defending the interests of the intensive farming lobby and industry”. 

“Today, common sense prevailed. Following approval in the EU Parliament, the Member States in the Council have now also cleared the way for the important re-naturalisation of our habitats, for the sake of future generations.” 

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash