New law sets a target for the EU to restore at least 20 per cent of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030
A herd of Red Deer. Representative photo from iStock The European Parliament on February 27, 2024, adopted the first European Union (EU) law to restore degraded ecosystems across the 27-nation political and economic bloc, according to an official statement.
The new law sets a target for the EU to restore at least 20 per cent of its land and sea areas by 2030 and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050, the statement added.
The law calls on EU members to restore at least 30 per cent of drained peatland by 2030, 40 per cent by 2040 and 50 per cent by 2050.
“To improve biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems, EU countries will have to make progress in two of the following three indicators: the grassland butterfly index; the share of agricultural land with high-diversity landscape features; the stock of organic carbon in cropland mineral soil. Measures to increase the common farmland bird index must also be taken as birds are good indicators of the overall state of biodiversity,” the statement read.
Targets for agricultural ecosystems can be suspended under exceptional circumstances if they severely reduce the land needed for sufficient food production for EU consumption, according to the law.
The legislation also demands a positive trend in several indicators in forest ecosystems and an additional three billion trees to be planted.
EU nations must restore at least 25,000 km of rivers into free-flowing rivers and ensure there is no net loss in the total national area of urban green space and of urban tree canopy cover.
The law’s adoption was put to vote. There were 329 votes in favour, 275 against and 24 abstentions.
The European Parliament had voted to pass the law with 336 votes in favour, 300 against and 13 abstentions on July 12, 2023.
The legislation was introduced by the European Commission on June 22, 2022. An amended version of the law faced deadlock as the Committee on Environment, Food Safety and Public Health (ENVI) rejected the proposal on June 27, 2023.
The law now has to be adopted by the European Council, before being published in the EU Official Journal and entering into force 20 days later.
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