ECOS | Environmental Coalition on Standards

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Nature protection & restoration

Ecosystems and biodiversity

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.

What we are working on

  • ECOS contributes to policies that monitor and report the progress of key ecological health indicators, including biodiversity, land resilience and adaptation to climate change, and the impacts of different management practices on ecosystems.
  • We advocate robust laws, principles, and definitions for the ecological management of forests, farmland, and other land ecosystems, such as close-to-nature forestry.
  • We develop standardised methodologies for assessing ecosystem functions, based on state-of-the-art scientific knowledge.
  • We promote ecological land management that is regenerative, restores nature and resources, is just towards all stakeholders, and supports human health.
Who we work with

Alliances and campaigns

Related news

  • A recipe for change: Transitioning to an agroecological food system

    At ECOS, we work across sectors to ensure the technical rules that shape our economies also protect people and the planet. We now bring our expertise to the agrifood sector - where strengthening rules and standards could have profound environmental and social benefits.

  • No nature, no future: Why biodiversity standards matter

    Nature is the living system that makes all economic activity possible. From clean water, filtered by forests, to birds controlling crop-eating insects, nature quietly sustains us every day. Businesses and governments therefore have a lot to gain from understanding how their decisions impact ecosystems. Life’s intrinsic right to exist is inalienable and rules to protect it need monitoring to check that they are effective. But how do we measure impacts on biodiversity? And how can we use that information to improve how we steward ecosystems?

  • Call for experts – PFAS in soils and biosolids

    ECOS is looking for experts in the field of PFAS detection, analysis and reduction in soils and biosolids to represent and defend environmental interests in the development of standards and related policies. Our experts provide us with technical and scientific input and represent ECOS in standardisation processes and multi-stakeholder discussions.

Contact person
Samy Porteron
Senior Programme Manager samy.porteron@ecostandard.org
Martina Forbicini
Programme Officer martina.forbicini@ecostandard.org

ECOS is co-funded by the European Commission and EFTA 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.

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