On Tuesday, the EU Parliament passed the “Nature Restoration Act”, which has been heavily criticized in some quarters, by a narrow majority. This means that more trees will be planted and moors and rivers will be renaturised in the EU in future. As soon as the law is finally approved by the EU member states, the states will be obliged to restore at least 30% of damaged habitats by 2030, 60% by 2040 and finally 90% by 2050.
The law aims to protect and expand natural habitats in Europe, as 80% of habitats are already in poor condition.
There are many positive side effects, including the natural storage of carbon and the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems. The renaturation of blue and green infrastructure, i.e. nature and water, count as nature-based approaches to reducing the impact of climate change on people and to increase the resilience of a population to extreme weather events. The new law aims to mitigate heatwaves, droughts, heavy rainfall events and flooding.
However, there is also criticism of the new nature conservation law. For example, from the German Farmers’ Association, which describes the decision as a “step backwards for cooperation between agriculture and nature conservation.” There were also dissenting voices from the political parties, for example from the European People’s Party (EPP) around the CDU and CSU.
Source: Tagesschau