The European Consortium of Natural Sciences and Natural History Museums and Botanical Gardens gathered around CETAF jointly backs the Nature Restoration Law and urges the decision-maker to approve the Law, without reducing its ambition.
“The community quickly reacted when the Restoration Law has been put in danger in the European Parliament” – says Ana Casino, Executive Director of CETAF – “We jointly have drafted an open letter to the decision-makers to show our deep concern and to push them to respect the commitments under the Global Biodiversity Framework at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 in Montréal last December. We opened the letter even to other organizations and institutions outside CETAF because this is really a dramatic moment we can not miss” – Casino continues – “We shall not keep our eyes shut facing the accelerating climate change effects, the biodiversity crisis and the sizeable consequences on the food production and the health and safety of the populations.”
It’s worth remembering that almost half of the World’s richness derives from nature.
CETAF’s members, all research institutions holding natural sciences collections, keep almost 80% of the World’s described diversity.
“They definitely don’t want to be holding more and more extinct species…” – ends Casino – “Nature’s incredible capacity to self-restore must be tirelessly helped by political actions. We can not afford to lose more time and resources, that’s why we are addressing this open letter to our legislators and decision-makers and we really hope the Nature Restoration Law will be approved at the EU level as soon as possible.”
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On Thursday 15 June 2023, the European Parliament’s Environment Committee will vote on the Nature Restoration Act proposed by the European Commission as a key element of the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy/Green Deal for Europe. If approved, this proposal will be the first law of its kind on a continental scale, calling for binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems. This restoration will increase carbon capture and storage, help reduce the impact of natural disasters and ultimately benefit employment and food security.
To reinforce the need for an ambitious Nature Restoration Act, and in the face of opposition from the Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) and Fisheries (PECH) Committees, six leading European scientific institutes have launched an open letter calling on EU leaders and members of the Environment Committee to vote in favour of the Nature Restoration Act. The initiative is supported by the CETAF (Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities) network, which brings together more than 70 European natural history museums and botanical gardens.
Dr Stanislav Edward Shmelev says:
Environment Europe Foundation produced a unique album entitled ‘Ecosystems: Complexity, Diversity and Nature’s Contribution to Humanity’ and organised an impactful photographic exhibition at Oxford University to attract the public’s attention to the issues at stake.
Our director, Dr Stanislav Shmelev presented the recently published ‘ECOSYSTEMS’ album at the United Nations World Urban Forum 2020 in Abu Dhabi. The album has received letters of support from HH Pope Francis, HRH Prince Charles, President Macron, Prime Minister Rutte, Government of India and Sir David Attenborough as well as Nobel Prize winning climate change economists, former presidents of the International Society for Ecological Economics, IUCN, DG Environment at the European Commission, co-president of the Club of Rome, professors from Colombia, Sri Lanka, Spain, UK, Brazil, USA.
The book has been launched at the 50th Anniversary conference of the Club of Rome and shown at a large exhibition held at Oxford University followed by the presentation at the UNFCCC COP24 Conference on Climate Change.
In our work, we take the issues of ecosystems restoration very seriously. This is why we have just published a new article entitled ‘Multidimensional Ecosystem Mapping: Towards a More Comprehensive Spatial Assessment of Nature’s Contributions to People in France’. The article presents a highly innovative approach to map ecosystems and their services that Environment Europe proposes to governments to undertake.
The article can be downloaded free of charge via the portal: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7557
This summer we are organising a highly innovative executive Summer School in Oxford focused on the issues of Business Transformation, ESG, Sustainable and Impact Investment and New Sustainable Business Models. Lead the change, apply today: https://environmenteurope.eu/oxford-summer-2023