The nature restoration act was adopted by the EU council in June 2024, a forward step in helping to enshrine this law on member states unique natural restoration policies. The Policy is a watershed moment, that seeks to reverse the damage to biodiversity and effects of climate change by restoring Europe's degraded ecosystems, through ‘rewetting wetlands, improving degraded soil and agricultural land by adding natural features such as hedgerows and trees, recreating lost natural forests, removing invasive species, planting native vegetation, removing obsolete barriers from rivers and increasing tree coverage in cities’. This is a binding policy, in which member states must assume responsibility for restoration in the EU, ultimately aiming to restore approximately 20% of EU land and sea areas by 2030, and to restore all areas in need by 2050. Although this policy has faced some backlash, it passed with a majority of 20 votes.
This work is particularly important, given that only 23% of tracked species by the EU are reported to be in good health whilst 81% of protected habitats are said to be in a poor state.
The benefits we feel of course will be wide ranging, for the environment the increase in biodiversity along with the removal of CO2, increased activity by crop pollinators and decreased risk from natural disasters
such as wildfires and flooding. Socially, increasingly green and natural spaces, can have positive impacts of our mental health and wellbeing.
The Economic case is also sound, research suggests that there will be increased jobs in sustainability and ecotourism.
The WWF suggests that for every €1 invested in natural restoration, we experience an increase in economic value by between €8 to €38.
Socially we will see a decline in the deaths and risks associated with risks to human health. Air, noise and water pollution have been shown to cause thousands of deaths globally per year, and of course, the effects are felt economically disparately. Thankfully, trees for example, buffer noise, reduce the heat island effect, and capture air pollutants. Thus in urban areas, Increasing the size of and accessibility to green and blue spaces in cities could help tackle these wellbeing problems whilst tackling the double crisis of biodiversity loss and climate change.