Europe’s Nature Restoration Law has now been adopted. What comes next?

The European Union has recently adopted the Nature Restoration Law to address the widespread degradation of ecosystems. A key concern now is how effectively the law will be implemented across member states. We highlight the potential of spontaneous ecological succession (unassisted restoration) as a viable method for ecosystem restoration, often overlooked in favor of active restoration approaches. Analysis of 530 global studies and 156 European studies found that spontaneous succession succeeded in restoring natural or semi-natural vegetation in 60 and 67% of cases, respectively. This passive restoration approach, when applied under suitable conditions, can effectively recover degraded or destroyed ecosystems while being cost-efficient. We argue that the ecological benefits of spontaneous succession should be more widely considered in restoration projects.

Karel Prach, Petra Janečková, and Lawrence R. Walker