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Official name: Nature Restoration Regulation
Citation: Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2024 on nature restoration
Year / status: Adopted 24 June 2024. In force since 18 August 2024.
What it does
The regulation sets Union-wide restoration duties. Member States must jointly put restoration measures in place on at least 20 percent of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030, and on all ecosystems that need restoration by 2050. It adds time-bound targets for Habitats Directive Annex I habitat types, peatlands, rivers, urban green space, agricultural ecosystems, forests, and marine habitats: on top of, not instead of, the Birds and Habitats Directives.
Where it applies / status
It applies directly in every EU Member State. Each state had to send the Commission a draft national restoration plan by 1 September 2026. The Commission and the European Environment Agency then assess the drafts; final plans follow after Commission observations. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/912 set a uniform plan format.
Documented benefits or intended effects
The intended effects are to reverse ecosystem decline, store more carbon in soils and wetlands, and reduce some disaster and water-security risks. Those are statutory aims, not measured 2024-2026 outcomes. The law is too new for a completed evaluation of hectares actually restored under it.
Caveats
A regulation is not a restored peatland. Delivery sits in national plans, budgets, and land-use fights. The text was politically contested. It does not repeal Natura 2000 rules, and it does not, by itself, stop conversion outside restoration sites.
Sources
Primary text on EUR-Lex; Commission pages on the law and on entry into force (18 August 2024); Commission note that draft plans were due 1 September 2026.