Through binding targets, the Nature Restoration Law requires restoring and protecting at least 20% of EU land and sea by 2030, and restoring all degraded ecosystems by 2050. Specific goals outlined by the law include:

• Reversing declines in pollinators
• Reviving the flows of rivers
• Increasing forest biodiversity and connectivity
• Restoring marine habitats
• Expanding urban green spaces by at least 5%
• And increasing farmland bird populations and organic carbon in croplands.

EU Member states must formulate national plans with concrete measures tailored to achieving EU-wide goals. However, some targets may be postponed in case of any exceptional circumstances, e.g. severe economic recession or major disruptions to agricultural production.

The European Parliament and the Council recently reached an agreement on the Nature Restoration Act and now need to formally adopt the regulation. Member states have two years after the law enters into force to submit their first nature restoration plan to the Commission.



What about the European Green Deal?

The European Green Deal, which forms the basis of the Nature Restoration Law, is a wide-ranging policy initiative that the European Commission launched in 2019 to make the EU climate-neutral by 2050, and contains some major implications for biodiversity policy.

For starters, a key component of the European Green Deal is the EU Biodiversity strategy for 2030, which sets specific targets and commitments to protect the biodiversity of Europe such as:

• Legally protecting 30% of EU land and sea
• Restoring degraded ecosystems
• Reducing pesticide use by 50%
• And planting 3 billion trees.
  
  

Green building and biodiversity

When it comes to green building and infrastructure, we hope that with the increase in nature base recommendations, GRESB and Green Building certification systems (e. g. LEED®) will play an important role in protecting and enhancing biodiversity in the future. On top of drawing attention to the issue of biodiversity loss in the industry and highlighting the priority of its protection, both the GRESB assessment and the Green Building certification process may help create accountability for companies and their projects to quantify, report on, and improve their biodiversity performance.

Public disclosure helps to create reputational incentives. And with major industry benchmarks incorporating biodiversity; design that makes biodiversity paramount is brought more into the mainstream, and less of a niche. With biodiversity made more mainstream in the industry, we really start to see a positive network effect in built up areas, with the multiplication of sustainable developments increasing total green space and the connectivity of habitats.

The future of biodiversity

From past experiences (such as the EU missing its target to halt biodiversity loss by 2010 and the Natura 2000 network having uneven coverage, management, and funding for different countries), biodiversity targets can’t be met without sufficient enforcement, financing, monitoring, and stakeholder engagement. The crises faced by the biodiversity of Europe and the world at large are increasing, and the amount of protected area coverage, the quality of that coverage, amount of native ecosystems restored, and incentivisation of regenerative agriculture will need to be increased and improved upon in the upcoming years.

The UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook report warns that without urgent action, biodiversity will continue to decline at unprecedented rates. Public concern over biodiversity loss is on the rise however, and momentum for the required change is starting to build up. 

Ideally in the future (at least in Europe), we’ll see increased buy-in and engagement on legislation such as the European Green Deal, Nature Restoration Law, or any other proposals that may present themselves. 

Watch this space. With the right action and political will, biodiversity will flourish once again.