The European Commission will on Wednesday propose legally binding targets to restore nature across the EU, in an attempt to recover plunging wildlife populations and repair degraded habitats.
European Union environment policy chief Virginijus Sinkevicius told Reuters the proposal would require EU countries to collectively restore nature to 20 percent of EU land by 2030, and meet individual targets for certain habitats and species.
“Nothing can replace ecosystem services that the oceans provide, our soils or our forests,” he said in an interview.
The EU has put its climate change targets in law, but not yet those to protect nature.
The law would lay down binding goals to increase farmland bird populations, reverse the decline of pollinators, and restore 25,000 km (15,500 miles) of rivers to flow along their natural courses by 2030. Countries will have to produce national plans to contribute to the EU-wide aims.
Intensive farming, forestry and urbanisation are fuelling the degradation of natural habitats. Most of Europe’s protected habitats and species have a negative conservation status, and a third of bee and butterfly species have declining populations.
