An international team has demonstrated the effectiveness of marine ecosystem restoration interventions
The publication has just appeared in the prestigious international journal: Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57254-2
Over the last 100 years, humans have destroyed or damaged a large part of marine ecosystems. There are many examples of shallow and deep ecosystems being under pressure and a high proportion of assessed marine species and habitats continues to be in ‘unfavourable conservation status’ in Europe and elsewhere.
The EU Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR), sets out an ambitious framework to restore degraded ecosystems across Europe for the benefit of people nature and the climate, as part of the EU’s broader commitment to halt biodiversity loss and address climate change.
The European Commission has strongly supported the law on the Restoration of Nature through which, in the coming months, it will lead all member states to define the objectives and priorities for the restoration of all ecosystems in their countries. In particular, the law will require EU member states to restore 20% of degraded marine habitats by 2030, 60% by 2040 and 90-100% by 2050.
To create widespread consensus and develop a national plan for the restoration of marine ecosystems and at the same time incentivize investments in this direction, it is necessary to demonstrate that the interventions are successful and economically advantageous. In this way, it will also be possible to involve civil society and private companies to stimulate the development of new business sectors and new employment. For example, in the European Project REDRESS https://redress-project.eu/, restoration interventions are leading to the development of new technologies, with specialised underwater robots and vehicles capable of operating in deep environments. (Read more …)
