Restore, maintain and enhance ecosystem services in the EU, notably pollination and other regulating ecosystem services.

Virtually all environmental legislation, including the Birds and Habitats Directive, the Water Framework Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and EU legislation on pollution, contributes to restoring, maintaining and enhancing ecosystem services in the EU. More specific measures include the following:

Main legislation in place:

The Water Framework Directive, notably Article 4, sets out environmental objectives for surface waters, groundwater and protected areas. 

The EU Flood Risk Directive and an encompassing EU flood policy aim to reduce the adverse consequences associated with floods.

The National Emissions reduction Commitments Directive contributes to achieving the EU’s biodiversity and ecosystem objectives, e.g. by monitoring the negative impacts of air pollution upon ecosystems.

The Nature Restoration Law, notably Articles 4-7, 9-10, aims to set specific targets for restoring the following ecosystems: terrestrial, coastal and freshwater ecosystems; marine ecosystems; urban ecosystems; rivers and floodplains; pollinators; agricultural ecosystems; forest ecosystems. 

The revised Regulation on new environmental economic accounts updates the common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of European environmental economic accounts. It includes a new module on ecosystem accounts, which present data on the extent and condition of ecosystem assets and the services they provide to society and the economy.

Legislation proposed:

The Commission proposal for a Soil Monitoring Law aims to put in place a monitoring framework for all soils across the EU and to continuously improve soil health in the Union with the view to achieve healthy soils by 2050 and maintain soils in healthy condition. A provisional agreement has been reached by the European Parliament and the Council. 

Other policy instruments:

The Commission Guidance on integrating ecosystems and their services into decision-making.

The EU ecosystem assessment report 2020 helps bring awareness to the state and trends of ecosystems at EU aggregated level.

EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030, in particular the following actions in the EU Biodiversity Strategy Actions Tracker:

• Action 78: Revise criteria and monitoring to encourage Nature Based Solutions via legislation and guidance on Green Public Procurement
• Action 51: Commission technical guidance on urban greening and assistance to mobilise funding and capacity building for the development and implementation of Urban Greening Plan
• Action 53: Develop Urban Greening Plans
• Action 13: Commission guidance on an EU Methodology to map, assess and achieve good condition of ecosystems so that they can deliver benefits

The EU Pollinators initiative 2018 and the Revision of the EU Pollinators Initiative - A new deal for pollinators. EU citizens launched the European Citizens’ Initiative “Save Bees and Farmers!”.

The New EU Forest Strategy for 2030 contributes to achieving GHG reduction target of at least 55% by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050, and contains actions on carbon sequestration, carbon storage, flood protection and food provision. 

The EU fosters forest ecosystem services including through the Guidance on private and public payment for forest ecosystem service schemes.

Ecosystem services contributing to climate change mitigation and adaption are fostered inter alia by the EU Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and the Regulation on land, land use change and forestry (LULUCF), as amended, which provides inter alia for a target of 310 Mt CO2e net removals for the LULUCF sector in 2030.

The EU Soil Strategy for 2030 aims to ensure that by 2050, all EU soil ecosystems are in healthy condition and are thus more resilient and lays down medium-term objectives to be achieved by 2030.

Horizon Europe Cluster 6 “Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment”; EU Mission: Adaptation to Climate Change; EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters.

This EU contribution aligns with GBF Target 11 and covers all elements of the global target.

EU Biodiversity Platform involving representatives of Member States and observers (NGOs, stakeholders, academics,…).

For financing and capacity-building, please refer to the EU contributions to Targets 19 and 20.