Finally some good news for our troubled planet: Europe’s environment ministers this week voted in favor of the so-called renaturation law. Behind the unwieldy name hides a plan to restore at least parts of the destroyed nature in Europe. This has the potential to mitigate two threatening crises at once: climate change and species extinction.
Forests, rivers, grasslands, moors and other damaged ecosystems should be allowed to recover in Europe. This is sorely needed: According to the European Environment Agency EEA, more than 80 percent of the “particularly valuable habitats” are in a “poor” or even “very bad” condition, and with them the plants and animals living there.
If that doesn’t change, and quickly, Europe will be unable to fight climate change and species extinction. Not climate change, because disturbed ecosystems bind significantly less carbon dioxide than intact ones. In extreme cases – such as when draining moors – even CO₂ is released. And not species extinction, because the loss of ecologically intact habitats is one of the main reasons for the loss of biodiversity.
Sometimes just leaving nature alone is enough
The sad fact is that so much nature has now been destroyed that it is not enough to strictly protect the rest. In addition, it must be renatured.
This applies not only to Europe, but worldwide: In order to be able to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, forests, grasslands, wetlands and many other ecosystems must first be revived so that they can take enough carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Renaturation is also essential for the species protection goal agreed at the World Conference on Nature in Montreal: 30 percent of the earth should be placed under protection. It would otherwise be impossible to achieve it in tropical dry forests, since there are only less than 20 percent of this ecosystem type left worldwide.
Fortunately, there is second good news: Restoration is often surprisingly easy. In many cases it is enough to simply leave nature alone. In others, small measures, such as removing a weir from a river, are enough. Nature has amazing recreational potential. But she needs a real chance.