To mark World Wildlife Day, some thirty social and environmental organisations have launched the Alliance for Nature Restoration at a crucial juncture in the fight against the climate crisis, pollution and biodiversity loss. This coalition has been formed with an ambitious goal: to place ecological restoration at the heart of public policy in Spain. Today, it is launching a ten-point plan setting out its key proposals for achieving this, to be implemented in the National Restoration Plan.
The launch of this new Alliance for Nature Restoration comes at a crucial time both nationally and across Europe. The European Nature Restoration Regulation, adopted in 2024, requires Member States to restore at least 20% of terrestrial and marine areas by 2030, as well as to work towards the recovery of all degraded ecosystems by 2050. At the Spanish level, according to data provided by MITECO, only 9% of habitats are in good condition. In accordance with this regulation, Spain must adopt its National Restoration Plan by 1 September 2026.
For the new alliance, this timetable makes the coming months a strategic period. The organisations behind the initiative argue that restoration cannot be limited to isolated projects or compensatory measures, but must be approached as a structural and cross-cutting policy. Indeed, it is not a question of glossing over degradation or justifying further impacts, but of restoring the ecological functions and processes of damaged ecosystems and removing the pressures that cause their deterioration.
The coalition stresses that restoration involves addressing the root causes of the ecological crisis. This entails rigorously applying the ‘do no harm’ principle, protecting areas that are still in good condition, and ensuring that the term ‘restoration’ is not used to legitimise actions that are incompatible with conservation objectives.
Against a backdrop of extreme weather events, food insecurity, freshwater scarcity and the spread of disease, the alliance emphasises that healthy ecosystems are essential for health, security, the economy and well-being. The challenge is therefore not merely technical, but also political and cultural.
The alliance also highlights the potential of the hospitality sector as a driver of quality green jobs and the revitalisation of rural areas. In this regard, it calls for an analysis of the social and labour market impacts resulting from environmental degradation, and for the guarantee of just transition processes that offer real alternatives to workers involved in activities that have a negative impact on ecosystems.
The alliance’s immediate priorities:
- To promote an ambitious National Restoration Plan that is consistent with Regulation (EU) 2024/1991, based on the best available scientific evidence and on the effective elimination of impacts.
- Integrate restoration into sectoral policies and into land-use and marine planning, linking national frameworks with local realities.
- To promote a culture of ecological restoration through awareness-raising, environmental education and the generation of shared knowledge.
- Eliminate subsidies that encourage environmental degradation and redirect public resources towards activities that are consistent with ecological restoration objectives.
- To uphold the principle of no deterioration as an essential condition for ensuring lasting improvements to ecosystems.
Over the coming months, the alliance will focus its efforts on influencing the drafting of the National Restoration Plan and on developing concrete proposals that can be translated into practical action on the ground.
With its launch, the organising bodies aim to establish a culture of ecological restoration in Spain, based on intergenerational responsibility and the conviction that the recovery of nature is essential for our present and future well-being.
The European organisations BirdLife Europe and Central Asia, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and WWF form the European alliance Restore Nature, which has been working for five years alongside other organisations, such as Oceana and Friends of the Earth, to ensure that the Nature Restoration Regulation safeguards biodiversity. The requirement for each Member State to submit a national plan has driven this alliance, which brings together more Spanish organisations to ensure that the draft submitted reflects as many voices and contributions as possible and meets the necessary level of ambition.
A success story in nature restoration
At FIRE, we have been focusing our efforts on nature restoration for 20 years. A prime example of this commitment is NavaLAB, our field laboratory project specialising in agroecological and forest restoration. Through this initiative, we have succeeded in significantly improving the quality of the ecosystem at ‘La Nava del Conejo’ (Figure 1).
