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Green Deal: Overview

Highlights the key points of the Green Deal

EU Biodiversity strategy for 2030

Biodiversity is essential for life. Nature provides us with food, health and medicines, materials, recreation, and wellbeing. A healthy ecosystem filters our air and water, helps keep the climate in balance, converts waste back into resources, pollinates and fertilises crops and much more. 

 

© European Union, 2021

Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 - Key commitments

Nature protection: key commitments by 2030

  1. Legally protect a minimum of 30% of the EU’s land area and 30% of the EU’s sea area and integrate ecological corridors, as part of a true Trans-European Nature Network.
  2. Strictly protect at least a third of the EU’s protected areas, including all remaining EU primary and old-growth forests.
  3. Effectively manage all protected areas, defining clear conservation objectives and measures, and monitoring them appropriately.

EU Nature Restoration Plan: key commitments by 2030

  1. Legally binding EU nature restoration targets to be proposed in 2021, subject to an impact assessment. By 2030, significant areas of degraded and carbon-rich ecosystems are restored; habitats and species show no deterioration in conservation trends and status; and at least 30% reach favourable conservation status or at least show a positive trend.
  2. The decline in pollinators is reversed.
  3. The risk and use of chemical pesticides is reduced by 50% and the use of more hazardous pesticides is reduced by 50%.
  4. At least 10% of agricultural area is under high-diversity landscape features.
  5. At least 25% of agricultural land is under organic farming management, and the uptake of agro-ecological practices is significantly increased.
  6. Three billion new trees are planted in the EU, in full respect of ecological principles.
  7. Significant progress has been made in the remediation of contaminated soil sites.
  8. At least 25,000 km of free-flowing rivers are restored.
  9. There is a 50% reduction in the number of Red List species threatened by invasive alien species.
  10. The losses of nutrients from fertilisers are reduced by 50%, resulting in the reduction ofthe use of fertilisers by at least 20%.
  11. Cities with at least 20,000 inhabitants have an ambitious Urban Greening Plan.
  12. No chemical pesticides are used in sensitive areas such as EU urban green areas.
  13. The negative impacts on sensitive species and habitats, including on the seabed through fishing and extraction activities, are substantially reduced to achieve good environmental status.
  14. The by-catch of species is eliminated or reduced to a level that allows species recovery and conservation.