Nature is in steep decline. Species populations and the natural spaces they inhabit are dwindling and degrading, with serious consequences for people and the planet. In some places, however, the picture is changing. In this article, we present successful cases of nature restoration in Europe.
According to the environmental organisation WWF – World Wide Fund for Nature, ‘the Nature Restoration Law represents a historic opportunity to restore nature in Europe’.
The European Union (EU) has been protecting nature for decades through the birds and habitats directives, which safeguard more than 2,000 species and natural areas. However, despite these efforts and some limited progress, the latest assessment of nature in the EU, carried out by the European Environment Agency, painted an alarming picture.
Pollution, climate change, habitat loss and invasive species are some of the factors that are putting pressure on ecosystems and species populations.
You should know that 80% of habitats are in poor condition, 10% of bee and butterfly species are endangered and 70% of soils are unhealthy.
To this end, the EU and its member countries are working to implement the nature restoration regulation, which aims to restore nature and ecosystems to a good state of conservation.
Successful cases in nature restoration
Peatlands in Ireland
Peatlands are a unique habitat that supports a variety of plants, birds and other animals often found nowhere else.
In 2017, the EU-funded LIFE “Living Bog” project was launched to restore 3,000 hectares of peatland created in twelve Natura 2000 sites in seven counties.
Encouraged by the success of the ‘Living Bog’ project, the Irish Government is now setting up a more ambitious peatland restoration programme for the whole country, called ‘Peatlands and People’. It will receive a further €10 million through the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Fund.
The Skjern River in Denmark
The River Skjern in West Jutland is one of the largest rivers in Denmark. In the 1960s, a major project transformed the surrounding marshland into farmland. At first, the crops were quite successful, but over time their productivity declined drastically, despite the application of large amounts of fertiliser.
In 1987, faced with all this poor-quality farmland, the government launched a major project to restore the Skjern River and the surrounding land. The river was dredged and given a more natural, meandering course for 26 kilometres, and some 2,200 hectares were converted to marshland.
Water quality improved rapidly, and wildlife returned in large numbers. By the end of the project, between 350,000 and 400,000 people were using the new nature trails. A cost-benefit analysis of the restoration project concluded that the local economic opportunities created outweighed the total cost of the project.
Finland’s forests
In southern and western Finland there were extensive natural boreal forests, swamp forests and esker forests, which were vital refuges for plants and animals. Today, most of these forests have been used for commercial purposes and have become generally uninhabitable for wildlife.
In 2003, an EU-funded ‘LIFE’ project helped launch a large-scale forest restoration project to improve the conservation status of forests in 33 Natura 2000 sites.
Various measures were taken, such as diversifying the age and size of trees, increasing the amount of dead or decaying wood and opening forest clearings.
The project was successful and has developed into a major national restoration programme with a budget of 30 million euros per year. The voluntary ‘METSO’ programme encourages private landowners to offer their forests for temporary or permanent conservation.
Forest owners, companies, NGOs and authorities have welcomed the programme thanks to its voluntary approach. It has also led the government to launch a second major programme – HELMI – to restore biodiversity in other ecosystems.
Schelde Sigma II Plan in Belgium
The Sigma II Plan is a long-term strategy for flood protection and nature restoration in the Scheldt estuary around Antwerp. The Plan includes 50 projects to be carried out between 2006 and 2030.
The projects have a twofold objective: to protect against flooding and to restore nature and biodiversity along the Scheldt River and its tributaries.
A new round of projects starts every five years. Each project is prepared by scientists, economists, sociologists, landscape architects and ecologists, with the collaboration of local authorities, nature conservation associations, hunters and fishermen. The selection of projects is also based on a social cost-benefit analysis. This analysis showed that improving natural infrastructure is cheaper than building and maintaining a storm surge barrier near Antwerp.
Overall, the benefits of the Plan outweigh the costs. The total cost is 469 million euros, while the flood protection benefits are 740 million euros, the recreational benefits are 22 million euros, and the ecological benefits are 130 million euros.
Pasture in Latvia
Semi-natural grasslands are disappearing from the Latvian landscape at an unprecedented rate. Yet they remain an integral part of European agricultural policy. To reverse the loss of biodiversity and increase the economic viability of semi-natural grassland farming, the “GrassLIFE project” was launched in 2016 to restore priority grasslands on more than 1320 hectares of 14 Natura 2000 sites. It works with 12 farms to implement different restoration techniques and develop best practices that can be applied on a larger scale.
Mobile grazing units have been set up to take livestock to newly restored pastures. Farmers are also receiving technical assistance to apply for maintenance and investment support under EU agri-environmental programmes. As extensive farming practices often find it difficult to compete with larger, more intensive farms, the project has paid particular attention to finding ways to improve the economic value of environmentally and socially equitable pasture management.
Restoration of cork oak forests in Portugal
The southern region of Portugal, between the rivers Tagus and Sado, is home to the largest contiguous area of cork oak forest in the country. It is also the heartland of cork oak production. Well-managed cork oak areas are important biodiversity hotspots and provide vital ecosystem services such as carbon storage, forest fire prevention, clean water and water storage.
In 2011, WWF launched the Green Heart of Cork project to protect, manage and restore cork oak landscapes in close collaboration with farmers.
Farmers now receive support from an EU agri-environment scheme to manage their forests in an environmentally responsible and socially equitable way. Key areas have been restored with the help of EU rural development funds, and a new ‘Payment for Ecosystem Services’ (PES) scheme has been set up to help farmers manage their FSC-certified forests according to ecological principles.
These are undoubtedly excellent success stories, implementing essential restoration measures to tackle current problems that threaten the well-being of all.
VÍDEOS
- Como funciona o Acordo de Paris sobre o Clima?
- Man Spends 30 Years Turning Degraded Land into Massive Forest – Fools & Dreamers (Full Documentary) – YouTube
- Family Transforms Tiny Suburban Backyard into Thriving Permaculture Gardens – Abdallah House Tour (youtube.com)
- Amazing 23-Year-Old Permaculture Food Forest – An Invitation for Wildness (youtube.com)
- Documentário Caminhos da Restauração: Despertando a Caatinga, (Projeto Restaura Natureza).
LINKS
- Lei do Restauro da Natureza: “Uma oportunidade histórica para recuperar a natureza na Europa” – Green Savers (sapo.pt)
- Casos de sucesso – Comissão Europeia (europa.eu)
- Restauração da natureza – Consilium (europa.eu)
- Natura 2000 – European Commission (europa.eu)
- Pioneering proposals to restore Europe’s nature by 2050 (europa.eu)
- Construindo a #GeraçãoRestauração (unep.org)
