EU agreement on future nature restoration law
Restore 30% of degraded land and marine areas by 2030: this is the objective set out in the text agreed by the Member States of the European Union and the European Parliament on Thursday 9 November 2023.
Today, more than 80% of the world's natural habitats are in a "poor" or "mediocre" state of conservation, and up to 70% of soils are in poor health. Faced with these alarming facts, the EU Member States agreed last Thursday on a text transcribing the terms of the Montreal Agreement on Biodiversity - the outcome of COP15, a conference held from 7 to 19 December 2022. The course set is the following, to which the members of the EU have committed themselves: to restore 30% of degraded land and marine areas by 2030, 60% by 2040 and 90% by 2050.
This is the first time that biodiversity governance has been agreed at continental level, introducing the legal concept of nature restoration, which had not existed until then.
While this is indeed a significant step forward for the preservation of flora and fauna on a global scale, it should be noted that the agreement reached last Thursday contains only obligations of means and not of results. As it stands, therefore, there is no guarantee that all the countries of the European Union will not achieve the objective set by the text.