The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) has welcomed the decision by MEPs today ( Wednesday, July 12) to pass the Nature Restoration Law (NRL).
The trust said that it believes this is a “substantial” step forward for the European Green Deal and while it claims that the law could be more ambitious, it has welcomed the fact that legislation has not been stopped at what it describes as a “critical stage in the biodiversity crisis”.
The IWT has criticised the level of controversy created regarding the legislation over the past few months, and claimed that opponents of the proposed law “resorted to such extraordinary levels of disinformation”.
Nature Restoration Law
In June 2022, a Nature Restoration Law to increase biodiversity in areas including managed forests and agricultural land was proposed by the European Commission.
The proposal has an aim of restoring 20% of EU land and sea by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. It also includes binding restoration targets for specific habitats and species.
The vote today to outright reject the law was opposed by 324 votes to 312 and there were 12 MEPs who also abstained. It comes a week after the Dáil overwhelmingly voted to support the NRL.
All Irish MEPs voted not to reject the law.
In a statement, the IWT said: “Unfortunately, the EPP [European People’s Party] group, along with other conservative MEPs voted on several amendments which aim to significantly weaken the regulations.
“An amendment which dealt with conservation measures on agricultural lands was completely deleted from the proposal.
“The amendment stating that once an area is restored it needs to be kept in a favourable condition (non deterioration principle) was also deleted, which allows for the degradation of restored habitats to occur which would result in a waste of money and effort.”
However, according to the IWT, there was an amendment on the Common Fisheries Policy which will ensure member states can put conservation measures in place to protect ecosystems in their waters.
Grace Carr, marine advocacy officer for the Irish Wildlife Trust said: “We are happy that the dangerous political games which were played by the EPP over the past few months failed, and that the law was not rejected by a majority of MEPs.
“The amendments involving the Common Fisheries Policy are a step forward for marine restoration and biodiversity but there is still work to be done in negotiations to make the law more ambitious than it currently is.”