Calling for Scotland and the UK to Emulate EU Nature Restoration Law

That the Parliament supports the European Parliament’s recent vote in favour of a nature restoration law, which will place recovery measures on 20% of the EU's land and sea areas by 2030, rising to cover all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050; is aware that a 2019 global study, carried out by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, found that 75% of the world’s land surface and 66% of seas have been significantly altered by humans, while more than 85% of wetland areas have been lost; recognises that the EU’s binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems are aimed at reversing what it sees as this worrying trend; is aware that, in the run-up to the vote, an open letter signed by over 6,000 scientists highlighted studies showing that restoring nature would improve food security, help fisheries, create jobs and save money, while opponents of the law "not only lack scientific evidence, but even contradict it"; notes with concern that the State of Nature Scotland Report 2019 concluded that, in Scotland, 49% of species had decreased in abundance between 1994 and 2016; acknowledges that the Scottish Government’s investment in biodiversity and nature restoration continues to grow, including through £250 million to restore peatlands, and through planting more trees than any other part of the UK every year, and urges both the UK and Scottish governments to emulate the EU nature restoration law by ramping up the pace of action to combat biodiversity loss, not least by also introducing statutory nature restoration targets.