The EU Nature Restoration Regulation and the Built Environment

The new EU Nature Restoration Regulation, effective from August 2024, mandates Member States to restore at least 20% of land and sea areas by 2030. It sets legally binding targets for ecosystems, including urban areas. Developers and planners should stay informed, as future projects may need to align with these ambitious restoration goals. Our Planning & Environment team explores the Regulation.

The Nature Restoration Regulation[1] is an unprecedented EU law. It requires Member States to jointly restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030. In addition, all ecosystems in need of restoration must be restored by 2050. The Regulation came into force on 18 August 2024. It sets specific, legally binding targets and obligations for nature restoration in terrestrial, marine, freshwater, and urban ecosystems. We look at what effect the Regulation might have, and how it aligns with other EU environmental initiatives.

Main aims

Some of the main aims of the Regulation are to contribute to:

• The long-term and sustained recovery of biodiverse and resilient ecosystems across the Member States’ land and sea areas through the restoration of degraded ecosystems, and
• Achieving the EU’s overarching objectives concerning climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and land degradation neutrality

Restore to good condition

The restoration of ecosystems to good condition means:

“the process of actively or passively assisting an ecosystem to improve its structure and functions to a state where the key characteristics of the habitat type reflect the high level of ecological integrity, stability and resilience necessary to ensure its long-term maintenance. The aim is to conserve or enhance biodiversity and ecosystem resilience within a habitat’s favourable reference area”.

Ecosystems

The Regulation covers all types of ecosystems, including:

• Urban
• Agricultural
• Coastal
• Forest
• Freshwater, and
• Terrestrial

These include areas such as cities, towns, suburbs, grasslands, forests, heath and scrub habitats, as well as marine habitats.

Urban ecosystems

Urban ecosystems are made up of urban green spaces and tree canopy cover. Urban green spaces include:

• Urban forests
• Parks and gardens
• Urban farms
• Tree-lined streets
• Urban meadows, and
• Urban hedges

The EU recognises the role urban ecosystems play in providing important habitats for biodiversity, in particular plants, birds and insects, including pollinators. Urban ecosystems are also regarded as being important for providing many other vital ecosystem services. These include natural disaster risk reduction such as protection from floods and heat island effects. They also contribute to cooling, recreation, water and air filtration. Additionally, urban ecosystems play a key role in climate change mitigation and adaptation.

It is said that increasing green cover in a given urban area can have the following effects:

• Slows water run-off, thus reducing river pollution risk from storm water overflow
• Helps keep summer temperatures down
• Builds climate resilience, and
• Provides additional space for nature to thrive

Therefore, increasing green urban space is expected to improve the health of the urban ecosystem and in turn the health of other key ecosystems.

National measures

Member States must put in place restoration measures that are necessary to restore ecosystems to good condition. For urban ecosystems, an aim of the Regulation is to ensure that the coverage of urban green spaces, in particular trees, will no longer be at risk of being reduced. This may be achieved by integrating green infrastructure and nature-based solutions, such as green roofs and green walls, in the design of buildings. Annex VII of the Regulation identifies the following measures as being examples of what could be implemented specifically for urban ecosystems:

• Parks
• Trees
• Woodland patches
• Green roofs
• Wildflower grasslands
• Gardens
• City horticulture
• Tree-lined streets
• Urban meadows
• Hedges
• Ponds, and
• Watercourses

The Annex states that these measures should take into consideration species diversity, native species, local conditions and resilience to climate change.

The integration of these measures to urban ecosystems can contribute to maintaining and increasing not only the area of urban green space but also, if trees are included, the area of urban tree canopy cover.

Whilst these measures must be tailored to each ecosystem, the measures must achieve a continuous improvement until good condition is reached. Once good condition is reached, Member States must ensure the condition does not significantly deteriorate, subject to permitted derogations. The permitted derogations include projects of overriding public interest and projects permitted in accordance with Article 6(4) of the Habitats Directive[2], amongst others.

The Regulation specifically identifies renewable energy projects to be in the overriding public interest. Development required for national defence reasons may also be in the overriding public interest. However, no other type of development is expressly recognised as being in the overriding public interest. This is because there is a high bar for derogations from the Habitats Directive.

Targets

Member States must ensure that by 31 December 2030 there is no net loss in the total national area of urban green space and of urban tree canopy cover in urban ecosystem areas. The baseline for this calculation is the level of green space and tree canopy cover in 2024. Member States may exclude certain urban ecosystem areas from those total national areas. These exclusions apply to urban centres and clusters where the share of urban green space exceeds 45%. They also apply where the share of urban tree canopy cover exceeds 10%.

Member States must also achieve an increasing trend in the total national area of urban green space from 1 January 2031. This includes integrating urban green space into buildings and infrastructure within urban ecosystem areas. Progress must be measured every six years from 1 January 2031, until a satisfactory level is reached.

To comply with this, the Government and local authorities may have to revise national, county, and local area development plans to ensure their objectives are consistent with the Regulation. These objectives could potentially have the effect of limiting urban development in certain areas. This is because any proposed plans will have to ensure that there is no net loss, or potentially a net gain, of urban green space and/or urban tree canopy cover in urban ecosystems.

National Restoration Plans

Member States must prepare National Restoration Plans covering the period up to 2050, subject to periodic review. As part of this process, they must carry out the preparatory monitoring and research needed to identify the restoration measures that are necessary to meet the restoration targets and fulfil their obligations under the Regulation. This includes quantifying and mapping the area that needs to be restored to meet the restoration targets.

Member States must submit their draft National Restoration Plan to the European Commission by 1 September 2026. The Commission will then have six months to review the plan. The views of the Commission shall be taken into account by the relevant Member State in the preparation of its final National Restoration Plan. The final plan must be published within six months of receipt of the Commission’s views by the relevant Member State.

Conclusion

The Nature Restoration Regulation is an unprecedented EU Regulation with ambitious targets. Its primary purpose is to restore our ecosystems and habitats to good condition. To achieve this, Member States must reflect on the condition of their own ecosystems and propose measures for restoring them to good status. The implementation of National Restoration Plans will be done with oversight by the European Commission. Once established, developers may need to factor these measures into proposed plans for future development.

For more information and expert advice, contact a member of our Planning & Environment team.

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The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other advice.

[1] Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2024 on nature restoration and amending Regulation (EU) 2022/869

[2] Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora