Today’s economic system is tied to ecosystem loss – it exerts enormous pressure on nature. Changes in land use, pollution of land, sea, and air, and the overexploitation of natural resources drive many serious negative impacts, which are unevenly distributed across society, hitting the most vulnerable populations the hardest. Life on Earth, including humans, needs healthy and productive ecosystems to thrive. To restore and protect nature, we need ambitious environmental policies and standards based on ecological land management, such as agroecology for farming, and ecological forestry. We need binding rules, which, in turn, require effective monitoring via ecological health indicators and targets.
In the name of "simplification", the European Commission wants to roll back vital environmental protections with an "Environmental Omnibus" – and they’re asking for your opinion. We have just two weeks to speak up before it’s too late. Tell them to keep their hands off nature.
Healthy forests are essential for our health, our economy, and our well-being; yet they are under threat. To reduce and mitigate these threats in Europe, we need cooperation at the EU level to monitor forest health and guide coordinated action with better forest information. A strong Forest Monitoring Law can provide reliable, consistent data on the many cross-border risks to forests and help to support healthier forests and the benefits they provide.
Every day we take soil for granted – but there is a whole world beneath our feet, hidden from our view, that is not only teeming with life but provides invaluable support to human existence. On World Soil Day we focus on the need for robust policy, backed by global standards, to both protect and restore healthy soil to elevate its life-sustaining power.
The EU Bioeconomy Strategy is under revision and ECOS joins 50+ organisations calling for a future bioeconomy that is socially just, ecologically sustainable and economically efficient. We need a strategy that tackles the EU’s growing biomass gap and puts justice at the centre of the bioeconomy.
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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.