Local NGOs join call to EU to restore 15% of land and sea

Local environmental NGOs were among more than 150 organisations that on Tuesday called on the European Commission to include the restoration of at least 15 per cent of land and sea area by 2030 as part of the nature restoration law.

In a letter addressed to the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission European Green Deal and Commissioner for Climate Action Policy Frans Timmermans and Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius, more than 150 organisations across the European Union raised concerns regarding the overall targets of the EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL).

The law is in the final stages of preparation by the European Commission which said it will be ready by the end of 2021.

The Cyprus branches of Birdlife, Terra Cypria and Friends of the Earth were among the undersigned organisations.

“EU biodiversity is in a terrible state and the NRL can offer solutions to the interlinked climate and biodiversity crises,” they said.

According to the NGOs, the commission should adopt “clear, measurable targets for land area, river length and sea area” which will “reflect the level of political priority given to this file through the European Green Deal”.

The current NRL “leaves room for interpretation and inaction” as it is unclear how much land, river length and sea area would need to be restored and to what degree, the organisations said and suggested the addition of numerical targets.

This will facilitate the monitoring of individual member states’ contributions, they said, and ensure the timely achievement of the EU-wide targets.

The NGOs are calling for a target to restore at least 15 per cent of the EU land and sea area, as well as river length by 2030, to which all underlying ecosystem specific targets should contribute. That would mean restoring 650,000km 2 of land, 1,000,000km2 of marine EU area and 178,000km of rivers.

Restoring Europe’s damaged ecosystems will help to increase biodiversity, mitigate and adapt to climate change, and prevent and reduce the impacts of natural disasters, the European Commission’s website reads.