Brussels, June 22 (BNA): The European Commission will propose legally binding targets for nature restoration across the European Union on Wednesday, in a bid to restore declining wildlife numbers and repair degraded habitats.
Virginius Sinkevicius, the European Union’s head of environmental policy, told Reuters the proposal would require EU countries to collectively restore nature to 20% of EU territory by 2030, meeting individual targets for some habitats and species, Reuters reports.
“Nothing can replace the ecosystem services provided by our oceans, our soils or our forests,” he said in an interview.
The European Union has put its climate change targets into law, but not targets that protect nature yet.
The law will set binding targets to increase bird numbers on farmland, reverse the decline of pollinators, and restore 25,000 km (15,500 mi) of rivers to flow along their natural courses by 2030. Countries will have to develop national plans to contribute to the EU’s comprehensive targets.
Intensive agriculture, forestry and urbanization are fueling the degradation of natural habitats. Most of Europe’s protected habitats and species have a negative protection status, and a third of bee and butterfly species are declining in numbers.
The EU proposal, which has been twice delayed, will need approval by the European Parliament and EU states – some of which have sought to delay or roll back measures for sustainable agriculture, citing the impact of the Ukraine war on global food supplies.
Synkevicius said the global food crisis was caused entirely by Russia blocking the export of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain, while failure to halt nature’s decline would ultimately reduce Europe’s agricultural capabilities.
“If we lose soil fertility, and if soil erosion and degradation continues, it will have a huge impact on our agricultural production,” he said. Soil erosion is already costing Europe about 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) annually in lost agricultural production.
Economic activities such as farming on lands where restoration measures are applied, will not be prohibited under EU law.
Laura Heldt, policy officer at the nonprofit European Environment Office, called the law a “tremendous opportunity” to address wildlife loss and climate change, but said only intrinsic nature restoration should be taken into account toward the goals.
“It’s great to have an overarching goal,” she said. “But this needs to be filled with the right actions rather than a whole bunch of weak things that aren’t likely to make change.”