EU law on nature restoration can only work if it is passed in partnership with farmers, a group of leading scientists has said after months of protests have brought the proposals to the brink of collapse, The Guardian reports.
In an open letter, leading biodiversity researchers from around the world said that efforts to restore nature are vital for food security, but for these measures to be successful, farmers must be given the opportunity to help make farming more sustainable.
The letter, signed by researchers from the University of Oxford, ETH Zurich and Wageningen University, reads:
At no point in history has there been more pressure on farmers. They are responsible for feeding an ever-growing population. And now we want them to save us all from the global climate and biodiversity crises, at the same time as market forces keep making the financial situation harder. We desperately need land to support a resilient agricultural sector. We need our policies to empower farmers to be the heroes we need them to be. But to do this, we are also going to need to save space for nature.
After months of protests by farmers across Europe, the EU’s Nature restoration law, which has been two years in the making and is designed to reverse the catastrophic deterioration of nature in the bloc, appears to be on the verge of collapse. Several EU member states have withdrawn their support for the law.
The EU was one of the leading negotiators at the COP15 biodiversity talks in December 2022, where governments agreed to protect 30% of the planet for nature, redistribute billions of dollars in environmentally damaging subsidies, and reduce pesticide use.
But the bloc failed to pass many of these goals into law, prompting warnings from Virginijus Sinkevičius, the European Commissioner for the Environment, that the EU would arrive at the Biodiversity COP16 in Colombia empty-handed later this year, undermining its reputation as a reliable international partner.
World governments have failed to meet any of the targets they set for biodiversity protection, a trend that this decade’s agreement was meant to break. The open letter reads:
Policies like the EU restoration law could be vital as we strive to save nature, and secure agricultural productivity across Europe. But these policies will only work if they are built alongside farmers. If governments can provide the right incentives, they can empower farmers to create a world where people and nature can thrive together.
