Restoration Law, agreement reached in Europe for the restoration of nature

The agreement establishes specific and legally binding objectives and obligations

ROME – The presidency of the EU Council and the representatives of the European Parliament have reached a provisional political agreement on the regulation for nature restoration.The proposal aims to put in place measures to restore at least 20% of the EU's land and marine areas by 2030 and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.

The agreement establishes specific and legally binding objectives and obligations for the restoration of nature in each of the listed ecosystem countries: from agricultural land and forests to marine, freshwater and urban ecosystems.

RESTORATION LAW

The regulation on Nature restoration is an integral part of the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and will help the EU meet its international commitments, they report from Brussels, in particular the UN Global Framework on Biodiversity Kunming-Montreal agreed at the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15). The provisional agreement will need to be approved and formally adopted by the co-legislators before coming into force.

The regulation covers a range of terrestrial, coastal and freshwater ecosystems, including wetlands, grasslands, forests, rivers and lakes, as well as marine ecosystems, including seagrasses and sponge and coral beds.It requires Member States to put in place measures, by 2030, to restore at least 30% of habitat types listed in both attachments which are in poor condition.Until 2030, the co-legislators agreed that Member States should give priority to Natura 2000 sites when implementing the restoration measures foreseen in the Regulation.Member States must also establish measures to restore at least 60% of habitats in poor condition by 2040 and at least 90% by 2050.Additional flexibility has been added for very common and widespread habitats.

MEASURES TO PROTECT POLLINATORS INSECTS

The text provides for the obligation to prevent significant deterioration of areas subject to restoration that have achieved good status and the areas in which the terrestrial and marine habitats listed in Annexes I and II are found.The co-legislators agreed to make this requirement effort-based.The requirement will be measured at the habitat type level. In recent decades, the abundance and diversity of wild pollinating insects in Europe has declined dramatically. To address this issue, the regulation introduces specific requirements for Member States to establish measures to reverse the decline of pollinator populations by 2030 at the latest.Based on the delegated acts adopted by the Commission to establish a scientific method for monitoring pollinator diversity and populations, Member States will have to monitor progress in this regard, at least every six years after 2030.

AGRICULTURAL ECOSYSTEMS

The regulation establishes specific requirements for different types of ecosystems.For agricultural ecosystems the text requires Member States to implement measures aimed at achieving increasing trends in at least two of the three indicators such as the prairie butterfly index, the share of agricultural land with high diversity landscape characteristics (HDLF), the stock of organic carbon in the mineral soil of cultivated lands.It also establishes time targets to increase the common index of farmland birds nationwide.The co-legislators agreed to provide flexibility to Member States in rewetting peatlands, as some of them will be disproportionately affected by these obligations.The text sets objectives for restoration 30% of peatlands drained for agricultural use by 2030, 40% by 2040 and 50% by 2050, although severely affected Member States will be able to apply a lower percentage.Restoration measures include rewetting the organic soils that make up drained peatlands, which helps increase biodiversity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.The co-legislators also agreed that achieving the rewetting targets does not impose an obligation on farmers and private landowners.

FOREST ECOSYSTEMS

For forest ecosystems, according to the agreed text, Member States will be required to implement measures to improve the biodiversity of forest ecosystems and achieve growing trends at the national level of some indicators, such as dead wood 'standing and on the ground' and the common forest bird index, taking into account the risk of forest fires.The co-legislators also added a provision calling on Member States to contribute to the planting of at least three billion additional trees by 2030 at EU level.

URBAN ECOSYSTEMS

For urban ecosystems and river connectivity, the Council and Parliament agreed that Member States should achieve a trend of increasing urban green areas until a satisfactory level is reached.They also agreed that Member States should ensure that there is no net loss of urban green space and urban tree cover between the entry into force of the Regulation and the end of 2030, unless urban ecosystems have already 45% of green space.The provisional agreement provides for the obligation for member states to identify and remove artificial barriers to surface water connectivity, with a view to transforming at least 25,000 km of rivers into free-flowing rivers by 2030 and maintaining restored natural river connectivity.Under the new rules, member states must regularly submit national recovery plans to the Commission, showing how they will achieve the targets.They must also monitor and report on their progress.

A GRADUAL APPROACH FROM THE MEMBER STATES

The co-legislators opted for a phased approach.Member States would first present national recovery plans covering the period up to June 2032, with a strategic overview for the period after June 2032.By June 2032, Member States would present recovery plans for the ten years up to 2042 with a strategic overview up to 2050, and by June 2042 they would present plans for the remaining period up to 2050.

The provisional agreement introduces a new provision which entrusts the EU Commission with the task of presenting, one year after the entry into force of the regulation, a report containing an overview of the financial resources available at EU level, an assessment of the financial needs for implementation and an analysis to identify any funding gaps.Where appropriate, the report would also include proposals for adequate financing, without prejudice to the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF, 2028-2034).