Healthy ecosystems
Our ecosystems are in poor health. Climate change is but one reason, other drivers are harmful practices in our agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors.
We need to change these practices to protect and restore nature.
EU action to bring back nature
We are losing nature faster than ever. Scientists believe that we are living through the sixth mass extinction, and first mass extinction since humans occupied the Earth.
But we depend on nature. The planet can survive mass extinction, we cannot.
Luckily, nature has an incredible capacity to bounce back. We know how to protect and restore nature. We also know how to reconcile nature protection and our needs as humans. We need to act strongly, and now!
Help us to bring back nature
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- Protect at least 30 percent of the EU’s land and sea area, and set aside at least 10 percent as strictly protected areas.
- Restore 30 percent of drained wetlands, regardless of whether they have been drained for agricultural production, forests or peat extraction.
- Promote ecological forestry practices. Such approaches are already practised on an estimated 22 to 30 percent of the EU’s forested area.
- Stop destructive fishing practices in EU-protected areas. The EU can no longer tolerate practices like bottom trawling, scraping all sea life from the bottom of the seabed, in its marine protected areas.
Deforestation in the Amazon/ Ana_Cotta S.O.S Amazônia/ Flickr CC BY 2.0
![Deforestation in the Amazon/ Ana_Cotta S.O.S Amazônia/ Flickr CC BY 2.0](assets/images/8/s.o.s-amazonia_web-b39e674c.jpg)
![Marie Toussaint Marie Toussaint](assets/images/d/marie_toussaint-1a38479c.jpg)
Opinion by Marie Toussaint
Photo by Gozha Net on Unsplash
![Tractor](assets/images/3/gozha-net-xdrxjcdedci-unsplash-ade3b525.jpg)
© Thomas Mounsey
![Global Warming Metaphor Thomas Mounsey](assets/images/0/globalwarmingmetaphor_thomas_mounsey-45a85554.jpg)
Forest/ CC0 timotheus-frobel
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![Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg](assets/images/f/8bdb6f7f59f84c5e92d5fea0639b0c2b-97209ac4.jpg)
![Martin Häusling Martin Häusling](assets/images/b/martin_h__usling-18a0518b.jpg)
![Ville Niinistö Ville Niinistö](assets/images/2/ville_niinist__-d47ac922.jpg)
![Marie Toussaint Marie Toussaint](assets/images/d/marie_toussaint-1a38479c.jpg)
Opinion by Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg & Martin Häusling & Ville Niinistö & Marie Toussaint
Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona-Unsplash
![Picture of environmental activists](assets/images/3/cover_naturestudy-e0cf057d.png)
Credit : Lola Merce
![Illustration of Amazon buring](assets/images/a/amazon_burning_-3567c921.png)
Credit : Lola Merce
![Biodiversity in jeopardy](assets/images/1/biodiversity6_1-91447fc2.png)
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![Forest](assets/images/c/dale-nibbe-6mu7ucao64i-unsplash-67b707b1.jpg)
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![Benoît Biteau Benoît Biteau](assets/images/2/beno__t_biteau-2a3d966b.jpg)
![Martin Häusling Martin Häusling](assets/images/b/martin_h__usling-18a0518b.jpg)
Opinion by Benoît Biteau & Martin Häusling