Author: David Salcines
When we think of nature restoration, we tend to focus on forests, wild rivers or wetlands. However, much closer to most of the population, urban spaces can also be an important focus helping to make our cities greener and more climate resilient.
The Nature Restoration Law, approved in 2024 by the European Union, set mandatory targets for Member States to restore degraded ecosystems on land and at sea by 2050. The law is a key pillar of the European Green Deal and the EU Biodiversity Strategy, turning previously agreed restoration targets into binding commitments. The overall objective includes to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and marine areas by 2030 and to move towards the restoration of all ecosystems in need of restoration in the following decades.
The law not only seeks to protect biodiversity, but also to harness the benefits that nature provides to the European population as an investment in health and quality of life including cleaner air, better water quality and greater protection against floods and heatwaves.
Importantly, it applies not only to terrestrial, coastal and freshwater ecosystems, but also explicitly includes urban ecosystems. Although cities occupy a significant part of European territory, their green spaces are often fragmented and designed without ecological criteria giving more importance to their recreational and aesthetic function than to their roles as providers of biodiversity and climate change mitigation.
The new legislation stipulates that the area of urban green spaces and tree canopy cover cannot continue to decline and from 2030 onwards, cities will also have to demonstrate a clear trend towards improvement in both the quantity and ecological quality of these spaces. This includes not only traditional parks, but also:
- Trees on streets and avenues
- Green spaces in residential neighbourhoods
- Vegetation integrated into buildings, roofs and facades
- Restored natural spaces within the urban fabric
The law is not limited to simply planting trees but seeks to improve the ecological quality of urban spaces using species adapted to the environment, diversifying the structure of vegetation, creating habitats for birds and insects and restoring urban rivers and denaturalising degraded soils.
These changes aim to have direct effects on daily life of European citizens including safeguarding spaces that promote physical activity and mental health and to create cities that are more generally resilient to climate change. Importantly, an advantage of restoring nature in urban environments is not competing with agricultural or forestry production, allowing for faster progress and fewer land use conflicts.
The law sets a specific timetable, by the end of this decade each country must ensure that no urban green space has been lost compared to current levels and from then on, the growth of green areas and tree cover must be measured periodically and maintained at an increasing rate until levels considered adequate are reached in the following decades.
To achieve these objectives, each member State will be required to develop a national restoration plan tailored to its specific context, outlining restoration needs and actions and measures to meet the law’s targets. Member States are also expected to identify synergies with related policies, including land management and disaster risk reduction. Draft restoration plans must be submitted to the European Commission within two years of the law’s entry into force, with milestones set for 2030, 2040 and 2050.
Local authorities will play a key role, as they will be responsible for measuring, planning and improving these spaces, but the law also emphasises the importance of citizen participation in the process.
This law opens an opportunity to reconnect people with nature in their daily lives with well designed green spaces that not only conserve species, but also promote emotional well-being, social cohesion and greater environmental awareness. While investing in green urban ecosystems within cities may involve an initial cost the long-term benefits are clear.
In this context, the TREESURE project offers a practical way to support the goals of the Nature Restoration Law at the local level. By helping cities better understand and plan their urban green spaces and tree cover, TREESURE turns policy targets into concrete actions. The project promotes the use of well-adapted tree species, more diverse and ecologically functional green areas and the adoption of novel management tools and strategies to facilitate greener cities.
References
Nature-Restoration-Law-for-European-Cities_DEF.pdf