The regulation will now be published in the EU’s Official Journal and enter into force; It will become directly applicable in all member states
The EU Environmental Council adopted the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) on June 17, 2024, in what is being described as a win for the continent’s environment.
“Member States followed through with their commitments and with a majority of 20 countries, representing 66.07 per cent of the population, the law was officially endorsed, thanks to Austria’s Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler stepping up at the last minute, changing the country’s previous stance and safeguarding the law,” a note on the website of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) stated.
The regulation will now be published in the EU’s Official Journal and enter into force. It will become directly applicable in all member states. By 2033, the Commission will review the application of the regulation and its impacts on the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors, as well as its wider socio-economic effects,” a statement by the Council noted.
“Today’s vote is a massive victory for Europe’s nature and citizens who have been long calling for immediate action to tackle nature’s alarming decline. After years of intense campaigning and many ups and downs, we are jubilant that this law is now reality – this day will go down in history as a turning point for nature and society. Now, we need all hands on deck: Member States must properly implement this legislation without delay in their countries, in close collaboration with all involved stakeholders. At the end of the day, nature can rebounce, for the benefit of our climate, biodiversity and people!” The #RestoreNature coalition, consisting of BirdLife Europe, ClientEarth, EEB and WWF EU, stated.
What it means
It was the European Commission that proposed the NRL on June 22, 2022, under the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, part of the European Green Deal.
“Over 80 per cent of European habitats are in poor shape. Past efforts to protect and preserve nature have not been able to reverse this worrying trend. This is why, for the first time ever, the regulation sets out to adopt measures to not only preserve but to restore nature,” the statement by the Council said.
Member states must establish and implement measures to restore at least 20 per cent of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030, under the legislation.
A host of ecosystems are covered by the NRL, ranging from terrestrial, coastal and freshwater to forest, agricultural and urban. They include wetlands, grasslands, forests, rivers and lakes, as well as marine ecosystems, including seagrass and sponge and coral beds.
All European ecosystems in need of restoration must be restored by member states by 2050.
Special attention must be paid to the continent’s pollinators. Europe, like the rest of the world, has been witnessing an ‘insect apocalypse’ in recent decades, with abundance and diversity of wild insect pollinators declining dramatically.
“To address this, the regulation introduces specific requirements for measures to reverse the decline of pollinator populations by 2030 at the latest,” according to the Council Statement.
Member states must put in place measures to increase grassland butterflies, stock of organic carbon in cropland mineral soils and share of agricultural land with high-diversity landscape features.
They must also aim to increase numbers of forest birds and make sure there is no net loss on urban green spaces and tree canopy cover until end of 2030.
Drained peatlands must be restored and at least three billion additional trees by 2030 at the EU level. States should also remove human-made barriers so that at least 25, 000 km of rivers become free-flowing rivers by 2030.
“Great news. The #NatureRestorationLaw has been agreed by the EU Environment Council. I’m proud of the work we did in bringing it back to the Council today, when many thought it was dead. It has been restored in the same way nature will when we give it the right resources & space,” Irish Minister for Transport, Climate, Environment & Communications, Eamon Ryan posted on his X handle.
“This decision restores trust in the EU institutions by honouring the compromise agreement that was already made with the European Parliament. It shows that nature can come back strong, like the Nature restoration Law has today,” he added.
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