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LAST UPDATE | 27 Feb 2024
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT has voted to approve the final version of the Nature Restoration Law to protect and restore biodiversity, a major milestone after two years of heated debate.
The law seeks to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030 and all ecosystems by 2050, putting forward measures to restore urban, forest, agricultural and marine ecosystems.
324 MEPs voted in favour of the law today, winning over 275 votes against and 24 abstentions. Most of Ireland’s MEPs voted in favour, including Fine Gael politicians despite their wider political grouping – the European People’s Party – taking a stance against it.
11 of Ireland’s 13 MEPs from the Green Party, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and two Independents voted to support the law. Just two – Independent Luke Ming Flanagan and Sinn Féin’s Chris Mac Manus – voted against it.
The law was originally proposed as part of the EU’s plans to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises, which together pose significant threats to the planet.
However, proposals to restore degraded land received significant pushback from farmers who say it could lower their productivity, which led to intense debate over the law in Europe.
Last July, a sitting of the parliament saw MEPs vote 336 in favour to 300 against (and 13 abstentions) after passing amendments that scaled down some of the law’s original ambition.
Since then, negotiators representing the European Parliament and the EU Council arrived at a compromise on the text that was put before a full sitting of MEPs today.
This stage of voting on legislation in the EU is usually a formality, but the European People’s Party, the largest political grouping in the EU, said it would not back the law.
The EPP’s vice chair, Siegfried Muresan, said that the group “continues to have serious concerns about the Nature Restoration Law”.
“We do not want new and more forms of bureaucracy and reporting obligations for farmers. Let farmers farm,” he said in a statement.
Ireland’s Fine Gael MEPs, who are in the EPP grouping, broke ranks last July and again today to vote in favour of the law.
In a joint statement earlier today, they said the final agreement “achieves a balance between action to improve biodiversity, while safeguarding food security and guaranteeing that restoration measures will be voluntary for farmers”.
Climate and environmental organisations have criticised the EPP’s decision to back away from the negotiated text, saying it is essential that Europe takes action to restore biodiversity.
81% of assessed habitats around Europe are considered to be in poor condition.
Farmers have staged disruptive protests in Brussels and elsewhere in Europe, including Ireland, in recent weeks against a range of climate policies they say could hurt their business.
With EU elections approaching in June, politicians are highly aware of how decisions they make now could affect their chances of re-election.
Restoring nature can help to protect against the impacts of climate change. Restoring river flood plains, for instance, can reduce exposure to flooding, while planting trees in urban areas can help cities to cope with higher temperatures.
Peatlands store nearly 30% of global soil carbon and restoring drained peatlands could save up to 25% of Europe’s agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
Welcoming the outcome of the vote, Green MEP Grace O’Sullivan said the decision “gives us a fighting chance to reverse hundreds of years of degradation and damage that have been inflicted on our ecosystems”.
“Ireland is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. What’s good for nature is good for climate and biodiversity, for farming and food production, for health and wellbeing, for water quality and flood protection, for tourism and recreation – there are huge benefits,” she said.
Francie Gorman, the President of the Irish Farmers Association, which campaigned against the law, said that it was passed by the parliament “even though legitimate farmer concerns have not been adequately addressed”.
“This will not reassure farmers about the impact of the Nature Restoration Law,” he said, adding that while there have been some important changes to the Commission version of the Nature Restoration Law, the law is still flawed”.
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If they were serious about this they should planting native trees etc
@Nigel Hayden: Restoring forests is one of the actions under the proposed law.
@Nigel Hayden: if the EU wanted to get the farmers on board, they should stop access to the EU market for agri products that come from countries that don’t have the same strict rules and regulations that the EU applies to its own farmers
@Nigel Hayden: How many native trees have you planted?
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: a few ash & willow trees
Up the farmers! Is the rest of the world as mad as the EU?
@Finn Barr: there are few places in the world, if any, that have become as denatured as Ireland, this nature restoration law can’t come quick enough.
@Finn Barr: Farmers live on the same planet as everyone else. Preserving it is in their interest as much as anybody’s.
@Brendan O’Brien: obviously yes…. but damaging farming traditions that have been around for generations won’t be altered overnight…….. education will be a big factor & enforcement ( let’s be honest, some farmers will never alter course)
@Ken Mc Carthy: modern farming has absolutely no problem throwing away traditional farming methods to increase productivity but when we try to protect the environment, it’s all about “tradition”! Gimme a break! Modern farming methods have virtually nothing in common with traditional farming methods from generations ago.
@Finn Barr: Nooo.
Opposition to restoring nature and biodiversity is suicide.
@Brendan O’Brien: hate to say this but I actually agree with you on something!! My big fear is lack of enforcement….. farmers cut hedgerows at will & pollute streams & waterways to their hearts content…… this will never change off their own initiative……. we need visible enforcement with teeth
@Jimmy Wallace: we should be doing these things anyway. Making it law to reach a target before making a plan how to do it is the wrong way though. If they need to create a flood plain what’s to stop a land owner demanding €1million an acre that by European law the government needs? The only option the state will have is to take the land anyway which is why there is backlash. They’ll offer pitiful compensation and point to the eu law that is forcing them to force land owners to abandon there property/asset. There are plenty of landowners who would jump at a scheme to make a profit from unproductive ground who will now fight tooth and nail because it feels like an aggressive land grab. If they’re not on board it is destined to failure.
F the EU.
@Dan Skelton: isn’t mid-term break over??
@Dan Skelton: What have the EU ever done for us?
@Dan Skelton: F U.
@eoin fitzpatrick: Apart from drag us out of the third world?
@Art Vandelay: oh please do explain with numbers and facts how Ireland was a 1st world country before the EU and how it became a 3rd world country after EU. Of course showing the numbers and stats that back this up.
We’ll wait ;)
@Art Vandelay: well apart from dragging us out of the third world, over half a century of peace in Europe, stability and prosperity, the social and economic transformation of 13 former dictatorships, apart from all that what have they ever done for us?
For once, I’m on the side of something the EU does, Irish farmers left to their own would turn the countryside into a hedgeless, pigsh!t manure smelling, polluted prairie
@Dan Breen: countries that don’t have to adhere to all these rules and regulations should be banned from the EU market until they get their act together
@Dan Breen: ah no they didn’t and wouldn’t. Ah bit ott
City dwelling self proclaimed environmentalists are delighted to see this come to pass, because they foolishly believe it’s about ‘reversing hundreds of years of damage’.
It’s really not an EU environmental initiative despite the fact that the EU is implementing it as such, it’s part of a globalist push to first drive farming into corporate hands and then to reduce all food production to lab grown meat, from protein bases such as insects, a lab grown vegetable sludge to provide the basic nutrients, which will then be formed into approximations of food products, in the same way that vegan ready meal do. Within two generations people won’t even remember what real food was, or know what they are missing…
This will drive all revenues from everything being eaten in the developed world into the pockets of hedgefund Billionaires.
Globalist efforts are ongoing in the third world to destroy all tradition farming and to enslave those farmers to corporate patented crops and seeds, to first force them into debt and then to drive the out of existence entirely.
Call it conspiracy theory if you like, but mark my words.
@Dvsespaña: Dvsespaña, the Nostradamus of our times.
‘Mark my words!’ says the oracle.
No thanks.
@Brendan O’Brien: If you think it’s all a bit too far-fetched, imagine trying explain to a mother and housewife of 70 years ago, the absolute swill that passes for food today, microwave ready meals, unidentifiable fast food slop pressed into approximations of food, and the fact that numerous entire familes live on just that and never actually cook meals from identifiable individual ingredients.
Every single one of those oh so convenient ready meals and fast food take aways already puts revenue directly into hedgefund Billionaires pockets…
@Dvsespaña: I don’t eat them. Do you? Doe anyone try to compel you not to eat good food, of which there is greater choice and availability than ever?
@Brendan O’Brien: ‘Does anyone’, I meant.
Great that EU control everything now
@Kerry Block layer: Actually it doesn’t.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/glossary/principle-of-subsidiarity.html
farms must help to enforce voluntarily the directives or otherwise Eu dict- actors will ban extensive farming, exporpiate or change use of land
@Jose C.A.: Dictators? You realise that the European Parliament is elected by the people of the EU?
@Brendan O’Brien:
Von der Leyen…was.not.elected.
@ray murphy: Von der Leyen is not a member of the European Parliament. She was elected by the European Parliament.
I note Chris MacManus (SFs airdropped MEP after Carty elected to Dáil) has voted against the Restoration Bill. Meanwhile, colleagues in his party are tweeting that the bill passing is great news. Must be a tough gig talking out of both sides of their mouths.
He regularly abstains or votes against anything critical of Putin/ Russia. He needs to go.
@honey badger: honey, nothing you say is credible anymore since your ongoing support for the Israeli genocide on the Palestinian people. How do you oppose Russia but support Israel? It makes no sense! History will show that you stood on the wrong side regarding Israel.
If farmers and private business are not going to make a lorry load of cash from the clean up then it’s not going to happen
Where’s Charles the Turd when we need him? So many trees needing a hug.
Soundy sound: Can you post a link to anywhere I’ve ever supported “genocide”?
You can’t, but thanks anyway in advance.
Chris MacManus, (who has zero electoral votes) represents Ireland, and votes against or abstains on anything critical of Putin/ Russia.
I sincerely.hope he loses his seat. The people never put him there in the first place.
@honey badger: you continually express support for Israel – an apartheid state currently engaging in genocide.
@Soundy sound: They’ll be easy to find so. In your own time!
@honey badger: You did express unreserved support for Israel’s actions in October/November, when it was already engaged in mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza. I remember finding it puzzling given your opposition to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
The NRL will have significant consequences for land use and agriculture in Ireland. It mandates extensive restoration of wetlands and protected habitats, with specific targets for the restoration of drained peatlands—30% by 2030, 40% by 2040, and 50% by 2050. However, participation by farmers and private landowners remains voluntary so that means nothing!
The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has expressed concerns that the law could impact Irish food production and has emphasized the need to fully understand the impact of the proposed targets but wtf else are they gonna do?
The law sets legally binding restoration targets for a broad suite of terrestrial and marine habitats and species. This includes a commitment to reverse biodiversity loss and restore all of the EU’s ecosystems by 2050, aligning with global commitments such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. For Ireland, this means addressing the poor condition of its extensive wetlands and many protected habitats, which have deteriorated due to factors like, pollution, drainage and peat extraction!
The NRL is expected to require considerable investment, effort, and resources at national, regional, and local levels to implement and achieve compliance. The Irish government and the EU will likely provide support through various mechanisms, including the EU nature fund, to help meet the targets set by the law. The law also includes an “emergency brake” for agricultural ecosystems targets, which can be suspended under exceptional circumstances if they create severe EU-wide consequences on the availability of land required for food consumption, you see the clear cop-outs right?
In summary, the Nature Restoration Law will necessitate changes in agricultural practices, aim to protect and restore biodiversity, and will be supported by funding and support mechanisms.
The law’s implementation however will require collaboration between the government, farmers, and other stakeholders to balance the goals of environmental restoration with agricultural productivity and food security, when has that EVER happened in Ireland?
land grab
Rivers dead from agricultural run off. River banks destroyed by Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam and bloody rhododendrons gone wild. Mountains overgrazing by sheep and woodlands overrun by deer!!! It’s not just farmers folks, there’s a lot that the ordinary citizen can do too. But there are semi state bodies who have responsibility in these areas – so a little joined up thinking and cooperation could go a long way
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