More than 80% of European habitats are in an unfavorable conservation state. In August 2024, the European Union adopts the nature restoration regulation, a binding law that obliges member states to restore at least 30% of degraded habitats by 2030, 60% by 2040, and 90% by 2050.
This legislation transforms ecological science into territorial policy. Europe moves from the simple objective of conservation to an obligation of quantified results, with timelines and financial sanctions. But this ambition raises the crucial question of long-term financing and local acceptability of imposed landscape transformations.
The Essentials
- 80% of European habitats are in poor conservation state, requiring massive restoration
- The annual cost is estimated at €8.2 billion to restore 30% of habitats by 2030
- Agricultural opposition forced the introduction of an “emergency brake clause” in case of threat to food security
- Each euro invested returns between 8 and 38 euros according to the European Commission
An Unprecedented Obligation for Ecological Results
The nature restoration regulation is the first binding continental law of this type. Member states must implement restoration measures on at least 20% of EU land and seas by 2030, and on all ecosystems requiring restoration by 2050.
This systemic approach goes beyond traditional environmental policies. Member states must submit a draft national plan within two years of the law’s entry into force, with milestones for 2030, 2040, and 2050. The objective includes identifying and removing barriers to restore at least 25,000 km of rivers to their natural state by 2030.
The regulation requires member states to establish effective, proportionate, and dissuasive sanctions for failures to meet national restoration obligations. This legal constraint transforms ecological restoration into binding territorial engineering.
Considerable Costs Facing Uncertain Financing
The European Commission’s impact assessment estimates the cost of restoring 30% of habitats at €8.2 billion per year, while the biodiversity financing objective of the current multiannual financial framework amounts to €16 billion per year.
Annual costs for implementing the nature restoration law have been estimated between €6 and €8.2 billion, although actual costs are expected to be higher, as restoration and maintenance of marine and urban ecosystems are not fully accounted for.
Even if European financing can cover a large portion of restoration costs associated with the regulation, certain gaps may remain, particularly for financing maintenance costs. Moreover, as most European financing programs require co-financing, it is essential that European funding be supplemented by public and private sources.
Currently, financing for nature-based solutions amounts to 133 billion dollars per year according to UNEP, with 86% of public funds and only 14% of private financing. Investment in nature-based solutions must at least triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2050.
Agricultural Opposition Forces a Political Compromise
In July 2023, European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber attempted to block the nature restoration law, claiming it would destroy farmers’ livelihoods and threaten food security.
The main instrument the law proposes is to reduce productive land, forests, and marine areas to allow restoration, an idea that already exists in the Common Agricultural Policy under the name of fallow, requiring farmers not to use 4% of their land. Fallow results are good for nature, but also reduce food production, which drives up prices. Indeed, fallow was immediately suspended when the Russian invasion of Ukraine threatened global food security.
Broader agricultural mobilization pushed lawmakers to introduce an “emergency brake clause” that allows temporary suspension of the law’s requirements in case of serious impact on food production and food security.
Organic farmers strongly contest the unjustified opposition the legislation has encountered and oppose the narrative constructed that the nature restoration law would threaten food security. On the contrary, biodiversity loss and the climate crisis are the greatest threats to food security.
Economic Benefits That Justify Investment
In Europe, the economic benefits of the Natura 2000 network are valued between 200 and 300 billion euros per year and approximately 4.4 million jobs depend directly on maintaining healthy ecosystems.
Investment in large-scale nature restoration makes socio-economic sense, and restoration benefits are on average ten times greater than costs. The European Commission states that each euro invested in nature restoration generates between 8 and 38 euros in benefits.
Between now and 2030, restoring 350 million hectares of degraded terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems could generate 9 trillion dollars in ecosystem services. Restoration could also eliminate 13 to 26 gigatons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
The most comprehensive global estimate suggests that ecosystem services provide benefits of 125 to 140 trillion dollars per year, more than one and a half times the size of global GDP.
The Emergence of New Financial Instruments
The European Commission launched its “Roadmap towards nature credits,” establishing a standardized and voluntary framework to certify and exchange “nature credits,” effectively creating a new financial market for biodiversity. This policy aims to transfer the burden of protecting nature from public budgets to private investment.
The EU plans to establish a “€10 billion investment initiative for natural capital and the circular economy” by leveraging InvestEU. Blended finance instruments are specifically designed to improve expected returns and/or mitigate investment risk. Blended finance can thus play a key role in accelerating the transition toward nature-based solutions and biodiversity restoration.
The Wendling Beck case study in the United Kingdom demonstrates that large-scale nature restoration can be financed by private capital when supported by clear and credible policy frameworks. Returns were generated not by speculative markets but by regulatory demand, complemented by voluntary markets.
Europe is making a historic bet: transforming ecological science into binding territorial policy. With an announced return on investment between 8 and 38 euros for every euro invested, this systemic approach reconciles conservation with economic development. But its success will depend on member states’ capacity to mobilize necessary financing and convince local actors that this imposed landscape transformation also serves their long-term economic interests.
Sources: