La Nature Restoration Law (NRL) è il nuovo regolamento europeo che fissa obiettivi e standard per il Ripristino degli ecosistemi naturali.
The Nature Restoration Law (NRL) is the new European regulation that sets objectives and standards for the restoration of natural ecosystems.
The Nature Restoration Law (NRL) is the new European regulation that sets objectives and standards for the restoration of natural ecosystems, finally approved with 329 in favor, 275 against and 24 abstentions in the European Parliament a few days ago, on 27/02.
A historic agreement, which goes in the direction of consolidating the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 – of which it is an integral part – and contributes to respecting the commitments made by the EU and Member States at international level, in particular the global framework for biodiversity of the Kunming-Montreal UN Conference, agreed at the 2022 UN Conference on Biodiversity (COP15).
The law has had a troubled process to say the least: the original proposal, presented by the European Commission in June 2023, was significantly scaled down by the plenary vote of Parliament in July, before moving on to the trilogue – a negotiation of the text that thus emerged between the three European institutions, Parliament, Commission and Council – and landed in the Environment Committee on 29 November.
What does it mean to restore degraded nature and habitats?
Effects of restoration activities on degraded ecosystems in Belgium,
Torgny Natagora, RestauraNatura Campaign
It means promoting the recovery and redevelopment of ecosystems that have been damaged or destroyed and whose balance has been degraded. In particular, the regulation affects agricultural land, pollinators, forests and peat bogs, sea areas, freshwater and urban ecosystems.
The regulation aims, in fact, to implement measures to restore at least 20% of the EU’s terrestrial and marine areas by 2030, at least 60% of habitats in poor condition by 2040 and at least 90% by 2050. It establishes specific, legally binding objectives and obligations for nature restoration in each of the above ecosystems.
Measures that today are more indispensable than ever. As is known, in fact, 81% of habitats in Europe are in a poor state of conservation and one in three species of bees and butterflies is in decline, but at the same time at least 75% of food crops depend on pollinators. Furthermore, nature restoration is an investment that can deliver numerous benefits beyond improving the state of biodiversity or carbon storage, specifically social, economic and human health. The European Union itself reports that every euro invested in nature restoration corresponds to a benefit of between 8 and 38 euros.
Why is NRL important for pollinating insects?
The NRL therefore takes note of the drastic and dramatic decline in the abundance and diversity of wild pollinating insects in Europe – caused precisely by the degradation and fragmentation of habitats, pollution by physical and chemical agents, as well as by climate change – dedicating to them, as proof of the importance they have, a specific article, like the different types of ecosystems.
Article 8 of the regulation, which has undergone a significant downsizing during the legislative process, introduces specific requirements for Member States, which must define measures to reverse the decline of pollinator populations by 2030. According to 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.
Morevero, with reference to agricultural ecosystems, the NRL requires Member States to implement measures aimed at obtaining an increase in at least two of the three following indicators:
- the grassland butterfly index
- organic carbon stocks in cultivated mineral soils
- share of agricultural land with high diversity landscape characteristics (HDLF)
But it also asks States to restore organic soils in agricultural use that constitute drained peatlands.
The regulation then provides objectives and obligations for forest, marine and urban ecosystems, for wetlands, inland waters and river connectivity, prairies, peat bogs, etc. And it establishes the non-deterioration requirement, i.e. the obligation to prevent significant deterioration of the areas subject to restoration that have reached good conditions and of the areas in which the terrestrial and marine habitats listed in Annexes I and II are located.
Although the text leaves wide discretion to the States in the application phase and has been weakened compared to initially, the approval of the Nature Restoration Law represents an important pillar of the New Green Deal to address the environmental crisis and to achieve the ecological transition of the territories. Now it is up to the individual Member States to implement the law and translate into reality the indications to be quickly translated into national implementation plans, setting measurable objectives that will concern the recovery and restoration of different ecosystems, from agricultural to urban areas, from forests to marine ecosystems.
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