Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:
In the race to reach the new COP15 goals to heal damaged ecosystems, the European Union could have a head start if it passes an ambitious nature restoration law pending in the European Parliament. The new EU law would set specific timetables for repairing degraded rivers, wetlands, fields and forests across 1.6 million square miles stretching across the 27 member countries from Scandinavia to the Iberian and Balkan peninsulas.
If enacted, it would be the first big step toward achieving the global targets set at the U.N.’s biodiversity conference held in Montreal in December, which called for reweaving some of nature’s tattered fabric to staunch the loss of plant and animal species. With biologists warning that a mass extinction is probably already under way, a new agreement at the conference sets a global goal of protecting 30 percent of degraded ecosystems by 2030.
The COP15 meeting in Montreal followed just a few weeks after the COP27 climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, and the two sets of U.N. talks are closely linked, with overlapping and interdependent goals, including reaching global carbon neutrality and protecting 30 percent of the planet’s ecosystems by 2050. Global warming is one of the key threats to ecosystems and biodiversity, and at the same time, healthy natural ecosystems will be an important part of slowing the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases to stabilize the climate.
The proposed European Nature Restoration law could help Europe make progress on both tracks, said Jutta Paulus, a member of the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament who is leading the negotiations on the EU law, which would establish an enforceable framework for reaching the COP15 nature goals.
Many valuable natural areas in Europe already have some protection, but the new law is “creating obligations for member states to restore areas besides those that are already protected,” he said. The law also would include mandates for restoring altered ecosystems, including forests where wood is harvested and agricultural areas.
Agapakis said the proposed law could accelerate restoration of Europe’s rivers, in particular.
“I think out of all the ecosystem types, river ecosystems are in the most critical state,” he said. “Only a very small portion of the EU’s rivers are free-flowing right now, and existing laws don’t enshrine an obligation to remove those types of barriers that harm biodiversity.”
The new law would require a more holistic approach to restoration than has been typical in the past, he added.