The EU Parliament and Council have reached final agreement on the Nature Restoration Act

After more than a year of negotiations, the member countries of the European Union and the EU Parliament have reached a agreement on the law aimed at the protection and restoration of ecosystems natural of the Union:there Nature Restoration Law.The main points foresee that measures must be taken to restore natural ecosystems on at least 20% of the Union's areas by 2030 and to re-establish at least 90% of habitats in degraded conditions by 2050, plant three billion trees by the end of decade and free 25 thousand kilometers of rivers.All of this provided that the impact on the agricultural and industrial sectors is assessed in 2033 grant the possibility of suspending the Law for up to one year in the event of "exceptional and unforeseeable events" that could undermine food security in the Union.However, the agreement has raised criticism both from some farmers, who have expressed strong concern about the impact on productivity, and from some environmental associations, according to whom the agreement is a downward compromise.Now only the final steps are missing before adoption:the compromise text must be voted on by both the Council and the European Parliament and will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal.

The main points of theagreement they concern ecosystems, some control indicators, financing and the emergency brake.Countries will have to implement measures that aim to confer a positive trend in two of the following three indicators:the butterfly index in the grasslands, the share of agricultural land with high diversity landscape characteristics and the stock of organic carbon in cultivated mineral soils.Organic soils for agricultural use must also be restored on at least 30% of the total drained peatland area by 2030, at least 40% by 2040 and at least 50% by 2050.The countries of the Union will also undertake to reverse the decline of pollinator populations by 2030 and to reach an increasing trend every six years.To support forest ecosystems, an additional three billion trees will be planted and at least 25,000 km of rivers will need to be restored to free-flowing rivers.By 2030, we must ensure that there is no net loss of urban green spaces and tree cover compared to 2021 and, from 2030 onwards, we must work to increase this percentage.In the end, an “emergency brake” has been agreed which can be applied in case of need to the objectives of agricultural ecosystems and the Commission will have to evaluate and resolve any financial gaps between available and necessary funds for restoration within 12 months of the entry into force of the regulation.

Although the agreement was created to satisfy both politicians for and against the initial proposal, the new changes do not appear to have gathered significant consensus neither by agricultural trade associations nor by environmentalist associations.The Italian Farmers Confederation (Cia-Italian Farmers) commented on the news in a press release writing that it would put “the food supply at risk”.The note reads:«Strong concern on the part of Cia-Italian Farmers for the political agreement reached in Brussels on the law on nature restoration.What worries the primary sector is, above all, the reintroduction of Article 9 regarding agricultural ecosystems – with Member States committing to implement the necessary restoration measures to improve biodiversity – which would put food supplies at risk.The introduction of an emergency mechanism to compensate for the aforementioned article, which provides for the suspension of objectives for agricultural ecosystems in exceptional circumstances, cannot be considered satisfactory and merely implicitly recognizes the serious risks of this legislation, reported not only by the CIA, but by all the other European agricultural associations".

On the other hand, there are some non-governmental and environmental organizations, according to which it would be a downward compromise.Tatiana Nuño – senior maritime policy officer of the environmental association Seas at Risk – he declared that "the final result is far from what would have been necessary to face the biodiversity crisis".Other doubts were raised by Ariel Brunner, director of the environmental organization BirdLifeEurope:«A very worrying issue is the addition of the “emergency brake”, which would allow the Commission to suspend implementation for a year in the event of crises related to food safety. This makes absolutely no sense, because the threat to food security comes from climate and ecosystem collapse.The more we worry about food security, the more urgent the restoration of nature becomes."

[by Roberto Demaio]