NGO Letter for Nature Restoration

LPN joins with European NGOs to get objective goals for the new law on nature restoration.

We are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction with species disappearing at more than 100 times the natural rate, with disastrous consequences for our climate, our health, and our well-being. Protecting what's left is necessary, but it's not enough. We also need to bring nature back. We need to restore it. Our survival may depend on it.

We recall that earlier this year LPN joined other NGOs to demand that nature throughout the European Union (EU) be restored through a strong nature restoration law. We asked for their support through a campaign and in April we collectively reached 100,000 signatures.

Today we take another step in this process.

LPN joins the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and over 150 other environmental NGOs across Europe in sending a letter to European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans and EU Environment Commissioner Viginijus Sinkevičius expressing concern about the ambition of the New EU Nature Restoration Law, which is in the final stages of preparation by the European Commission.

We believe that the key to making this legislation as ambitious, appropriate and effective as possible is to set clear and measurable targets for the area of land, length of rivers and area of sea to be restored. As with the Climate Act, it is essential to have a robust and understandable overall target for the EU, covering ecosystem (and species) specific objectives, to be able to mobilize member state action on the scale required. Objective targets make it easier to track the contributions of individual member states, thus ensuring that EU-level targets are met on time.

This is why we advocate as a global target to restore at least 15 percent of the EU's land area, river length and marine area by 2030.

This would mean the restoration of 650,000 km2 on land, 1,000,000 km2 of EU marine area, and 178,000 km of rivers.

Read our letter here

Continue to follow us in this goal!