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Bring back nature

Healthy ecosystems

Our ecosystems are in poor health. Climate change is but one reason, other drivers are harmful practices in our agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors.

We need to change these practices to protect and restore nature.

EU action to bring back nature

We are losing nature faster than ever. Scientists believe that we are living through the sixth mass extinction, and first mass extinction since humans occupied the Earth.

But we depend on nature. The planet can survive mass extinction, we cannot.

Luckily, nature has an incredible capacity to bounce back. We know how to protect and restore nature. We also know how to reconcile nature protection and our needs as humans. We need to act strongly, and now!

Help us to bring back nature

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OUR KEY DEMANDS

    • Protect at least 30 percent of the EU’s land and sea area, and set aside at least 10 percent as strictly protected areas.
    • Restore 30 percent of drained wetlands, regardless of whether they have been drained for agricultural production, forests or peat extraction.
    • Promote ecological forestry practices. Such approaches are already practised on an estimated 22 to 30 percent of the EU’s forested area.
    • Stop destructive fishing practices in EU-protected areas. The EU can no longer tolerate practices like bottom trawling, scraping all sea life from the bottom of the seabed, in its marine protected areas.

OUR CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES

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Press release |

European Parliament approves regulation protecting forests

The European Parliament has approved the Deforestation regulation, which requires companies to ensure that their products sold in the EU are deforestation-free. The regulation improves the initial Commission proposal by widening the scope to additional products, something the Greens/EFA group was instrumental in pushing for.
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Press release |

European Parliament poised to recognize ecocide

On the initiative of the Greens/EFA Group, the European Parliament recognises ‘ecocide’ as "any conduct causing severe and widespread, or severe and long-term, or severe and irreversible damage" to the environment, specifically addressing environmental damage resulting from armed conflicts, such as the destruction of forests.
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Press release |

The window is closing, but we can still stop global climate collapse

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) call for rapid action and drastic measures to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to below 1.5 degrees in their latest report. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that global warming has already reached 1.1 degrees. Bas Eickhout and Pär Holmgren comment.
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European Bison, Wisent, Bison bonasus. Bieszczady, Carpathians, Poland / © iStock Photo
European Bison, Wisent, Bison bonasus. Bieszczady, Carpathians, Poland / © iStock Photo
Opinion |

Bring back nature: why we need a strong EU nature restoration law

Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg Jutta Paulus
Opinion by Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg & Jutta Paulus
The abundance and diversity of wildlife in the EU is shrinking at an alarming rate. An EU nature restoration law can help restore nature.
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©kelly-sikkema
Farmland/LULUCF
Press release |

European Parliament adopts binding targets to increase carbon sinks

As lead negotiators on LULUCF, the Greens/EFA managed to get Member States to agree to report on how they take into account the principle to “do no significant harm” when adopting reforms to reverse the current shrinkage of our natural land sinks.
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© Scanpix Sweden
Big fishing boat
Press release |

Greens/EFA welcome plan to end bottom trawling

The European Commission presented an action plan to end bottom trawling. In the "Action Plan for the Conservation of Fisheries Resources and Marine Ecosystems", the EU Commission calls for an end to the use of bottom trawling gear in marine protected areas from 2030. The Greens/EFA call on the EU Commission to present a proposal for EU-wi…
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Seascape with corals / Unsplash
Seascape with corals / Unsplash
Press release |

Historic results for biodiversity in COP15

After four years of discussion, more than 190 states finally adopted, Monday, December 19 in Canada, a historic agreement to tackle the gigantic challenge of the collapse of nature.
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A common squirrel monkey in the Amazon forest in Colombia / Diego Guzman on Unspalsh
A common squirrel monkey in the Amazon forest in Colombia / Diego Guzman on Unspalsh
Opinion |

Net zero pledges and carbon removals - greenwashing the climate disaster

We need real solutions to the climate and biodiversity crisis. Net zero pledges and carbon removals divert attention from real action.
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Tenerife blue chaffinch Fringilla teydea / Paul Asman and Jill Lenoble / Flickr CC BY 2.0
Tenerife blue chaffinch Fringilla teydea / Paul Asman and Jill Lenoble / Flickr CC BY 2.0
Policy Paper |

Greens/EFA demands for COP15 of the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD)

The COP15 in Montreal from 7 to 19 December must deliver a New Deal For Nature. Read our demands for the UN's Convention for Biological Diversity here.
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European Pine Marten / Unsplash
European Pine Marten / Unsplash
Opinion |

COP15 - A Paris Moment for Biodiversity?

Ville Niinistö Jutta Paulus Caroline Roose
Opinion by Ville Niinistö & Jutta Paulus & Caroline Roose
COP15: Why the UN's biodiversity conference is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to advance the protection and restoration of nature worldwide.