The recently adopted European Union (EU) Nature Restoration Regulation is a new legislative development that represents the first time that legally binding EU-wide restoration targets and objectives have been set.

Today, we are witnessing an alarming decline in global biodiversity: more than a million species are threatened with extinction and many critical ecosystems destroyed or severely degraded. Global ecosystem collapse may be closer than we think if we fail to mitigate these trends. The implications would be far-reaching and catastrophic, extending beyond ecological concerns. So how does biodiversity loss affect our society?

2023 has so far been a year dominated by new climate records and extreme weather events such as extreme heat in southern Europe, flash floods in Hong Kong, Slovenia and Brazil, and the highest recorded global monthly average sea surface temperature in August (WMO, 2023). The list goes on.