The Nature Restoration Act aims to reverse the degradation of Europe’s natural habitats. Portugal was one of the countries to vote in favor of the law, along with 19 other member states.
After months of back and forth, the European Council of Environment Ministers formally approved the Nature Restoration Act on Monday, June 17, which requires all European Union (EU) countries to restore 30% of habitats in an unfavorable state of conservation by 2030.
The Nature Restoration Act is part of the European Green Deal and had already been approved by the European Parliament last year. It has now received the final green light during a Council meeting in Luxembourg, with 20 member states voting in favor, including Portugal, six against and one abstention.
The measure was supposed to have been approved in March, but the vote was canceled after Hungary unexpectedly withdrew its support, leaving no majority in favor.
According to the law, all EU countries must present and adopt a National Restoration Plan with specific objectives (such as restoring peatlands to absorb carbon dioxide emissions), taking into account the conservation of terrestrial, coastal, marine and freshwater habitats in poor condition, and ensuring that there is no significant deterioration in these areas. The rehabilitation of habitats in an unfavorable state of conservation should reach 60% by 2040 and 90% by 2050.
In general terms, at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas must be restored to their original state by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.
Countries will therefore have to act not only to protect nature, but also to restore it, reversing the loss of biodiversity.
In Portugal, the National Restoration Plan will be designed by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF).
For the Portuguese Minister for the Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, the Nature Restoration Act is a “very balanced law, which will allow flexibility taking into account regional, local and outermost region diversity, and the protection of our soils, our forests, which, for example, were affected by the fires, and our rivers,” she toldSIC Notícias.
Regarding the National Restoration Plan, the minister admits that it will be a task to be carried out together “with academia, civil society, farmers, fishermen and all the local communities, in a great deal of dialogue, so that attention is paid to the socio-cultural characteristics of each of the regions”.
The regulation will now be published in the Official Journal of the EU, enter into force immediately and can be transposed into national legislation. By 2033, the Commission will analyze the application of the regulation and its impact on the agricultural, fisheries, forestry and wider socio-economic sectors.
“[A Lei do Restauro da Natureza] is the result of hard work, which has paid off. There’s no time for a break in protecting our environment. Today, the Council of the EU chooses to restore nature in Europe, thus protecting its biodiversity and the living environment of European citizens. It is our duty to respond to the urgency of the collapse of biodiversity in Europe, but also to enable the European Union to fulfill its international commitments. The European delegation will be able to go to the next COP with its head held high,” said Alain Maron, Minister for Climate Transition, Environment, Energy and Participatory Democracy of the Brussels-Capital Region Government, in a statement.
The Nature Restoration Act was presented by the EU executive in June 2022, when 80% of European habitats were already in a bad state and past efforts to reverse the trend had not been successful.
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