With its proposal for an EU regulation on nature restoration, presented on Wednesday 22 June, the European Commission is setting out a framework of obligations to enable Europe’s poor ecosystems - 80% of them - to regain their health and bring nature back to the continent.
This proposal is historic in that it addresses biodiversity loss for the first time in 30 years by setting binding targets for the restoration of at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030 and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050 (see EUROPE 12895/10).
It thus intends to respond to the urgent need to act to avoid the risk of the extinction of a million species if nothing is done - an alarm bell launched 3 years ago by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) - the ’IPCC of biodiversity’.
In doing so, it fulfils a requirement of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 to go beyond the protection of habitats covered by the Habitats (92/43/EEC) and Birds (2009/147/EC) Directives and restore all damaged ecosystems. This is the only way to reverse the decline in biodiversity.
This proposal will also allow the EU to lead by example in the international negotiations towards the final segment of the COP15 under the Chinese Presidency, which will finally be held in Canada in December (see EUROPE 12916/27).
The presentation of the future EU regulation, which was initially scheduled for 23 March, came at a time when negotiations on an ambitious framework for global biodiversity resumed in Nairobi.
“The science is very clear: it is the loss of biodiversity that threatens our food security. This regulation will not solve all the problems, but we need nature to survive, and to survive, nature needs us to redouble our efforts”, said the European Commission Executive Vice-President, Frans Timmermans.
Like the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, he stressed the importance of this ‘European Green Deal’ proposal for the ecosystem services provided by nature, the climate, economic activities and the well-being of populations.
According to the impact assessment, healthier and more biodiverse ecosystems lead to significantly better outcomes in terms of climate change mitigation, disaster prevention, water quality, clean air, healthier soils and general well-being.
Specific targets. The overall restoration objective is matched by specific targets for habitats and species already covered by the Nature Directives.
Annex 1 of the Regulation lists all the terrestrial, coastal and freshwater habitat types listed in Annex I of Directive 92/43/EEC and six groups of these habitat types, namely: 1) wetlands (coastal and inland); 2) grasslands and other pastoral habitats; 3) river, lake, alluvial and riparian habitats; 4) forests; 5) steppe, heath and scrub habitats; 6) rocky and dune habitats.
Interactions with the Common Agricultural Policy are based on specific targets for grassland habitats (from Annex I) and, more broadly, for all EU agro-ecosystems, based on evidence of improvement in a range of indicators that enhance biodiversity.
Specific targets include:
- Reversing the decline of pollinator populations by 2030 and increasing their populations from there on;
- No net loss of green urban spaces by 2030, a 5% increase by 2050, a minimum of 10% tree canopy cover in every European city, town, and suburb, and net gain of green space that is integrated to buildings and infrastructure;
- In agricultural ecosystems, overall increase of biodiversity, and a positive trend for grassland butterflies, farmland birds, organic carbon in cropland mineral soils and high-diversity landscape features on agricultural land;
- Restoration and rewetting of drained peatlands under agricultural use and in peat extraction sites;
- In forest ecosystems, overall increase of biodiversity and a positive trend for forest connectivity, deadwood, share of uneven-aged forests, forest birds and stock of organic carbon;
- Restoring marine habitats such as seagrasses or sediment bottoms, and restoring the habitats of iconic marine species such as dolphins and porpoises, sharks and seabirds;
- Removing river barriers so that at least 25 000 km of rivers would be turned into free-flowing rivers by 2030.
National plans and subsidiarity Member States will be required to develop national restoration plans in close cooperation with scientists, interested stakeholders and the public.
These plans must be adopted within 2 years of the entry into force of the Regulation.
Monitoring and reporting mechanisms are foreseen for the European Commission, which may request additional measures, if necessary.
To take account of national specificities, “measures are not prescribed, but the objectives will be binding. Member States will have a wide margin of manoeuvre regarding the order of priorities, the measures to be adopted and the instruments to be used”, said a senior EU official.
Member States will be eligible for EU financial support. In addition to the annual spending of the EU multi-annual budget on biodiversity targets (7.5% in 2024 and 10% in 2026 and 2027), national budgets, InvestEU and market-based instruments will be able to assist in the implementation of the targets.
See the proposed regulation: https://aeur.eu/f/290
See annexes: https://aeur.eu/f/291 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)