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The Irish Wildlife Trust welcomes the passing of the Nature Restoration Law and believes this is a substantial step forward on the way to restoring our degraded ecosystems. While the law has been weakened since the Commission’s original proposal back in 2022, it still sets in stone timelines and targets for bringing back nature on land and sea.
Today Members of the European Parliament voted to pass the long anticipated Nature Restoration Law which will be a cornerstone law for the protection of biodiversity, food security and human health in Europe. All Irish MEPs voted to accept the law except for Luke Ming Flanagan and Chris MacManus from the Left group.
After a final sign off by the European Council in March (TBC), Member states will have two years in which to draft their national restoration plans and lay out how they reach the targets proposed in the law.
Grace Carr, IWT Marine Advocacy officer said, ‘We are happy and relieved to see MEPs vote to accept the Nature Restoration Law. The European Parliament was part of the negotiations on this final text and it’s good to see that they stuck by it even with last ditch efforts to derail the law. We are extremely happy to see many ambitious marine outcomes in this law, including better management of EU fishing vessels in national waters. Many of the marine targets complement the asks for Ireland’s new national MPA legislation, and with both these laws in place, we may have a chance at effectively protecting and restoring our marine life.”
This law is an opportunity to empower communities to lead in nature restoration and for all stakeholders to work together to identify ways in which to save nature and create schemes which can help incentivise farmers and landowners to voluntarily take part.
ENDS
Media Contact: Grace Carr, IWT Marine Advocacy Officer, grace@iwt.ie
