The EU has set ambitious goals with the Nature Restoration Law.
Their plan is to restore nature across at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030, and all ecosystems needing restoration by 2050.
This isn’t just about planting a few trees. It’s about comprehensive ecosystem recovery.
- Targets Based on Existing Legislation:
The law focuses on several specific habitats and species.
It aims to improve and re-establish biodiverse habitats on a large scale.
This includes wetlands, forests, grasslands, rivers, lakes, and more.
The goal is to bring back species populations by improving and enlarging their habitats.
Another key target is to reverse the decline of pollinators by 2030.
This involves regular monitoring to ensure an increasing trend in pollinator populations.
Without bees and butterflies, our ecosystems would collapse.
For forests, the law seeks to increase deadwood, forest connectivity, and the number of common forest birds.
It also focuses on boosting the stock of organic carbon in the soil.
Urban Ecosystems:
Urban areas will also see no net loss of green spaces and tree cover by 2030.
The aim is to steadily increase these areas, making cities greener and healthier.
The plan includes increasing grassland butterflies, farmland birds, and the organic carbon in cropland soils.
There’s also a focus on restoring drained peatlands.
Marine life will benefit from the restoration of seagrass beds and sediment bottoms, which help mitigate climate change.
Habitats for dolphins, porpoises, sharks, and seabirds will also be restored.
One ambitious goal is to restore at least 25,000 km of rivers to a free-flowing state by 2030 by removing barriers that prevent surface water connectivity.