Renaturation possible on a quarter of Europe's land area

Restoring ecosystems is the essence of renaturation. There are many suitable areas for this in Europe, as new study data shows. An incredible quarter of the European continent could be considered.

What does the European Union's biodiversity strategy entail?

It aims to convert at least 30 percent of Europe's land and marine areas into effectively managed protected areas by 2030.

Ten percent of the land is dedicated exclusively to the conservation of various animal and plant species.

"More space should be given back to nature in Europe," explains ecologist Miguel Araújo from the Natural History Museum in Madrid in an interview with science.ORF.at. - And not without time pressure.

"There are only six years left until 2030 - and that really is a very short time for these projects."

In their study (published in the current issue of the journal "Current Biology"), Miguel Araújo and Portuguese biodiversity researcher Diogo Alagador analyze the continent's land areas taking several criteria into account.

Which surfaces are suitable?

"First of all, it was important to us that the human footprint in the region was as small as possible," says Araújo. Another criterion was the size of the regions and, ideally, animal and plant species of regional importance for the area in question.

The two-member research team determined a total area of around 117 million hectares.

The areas classified as suitable are, for example, areas that were previously farmed but are now abandoned or where there is hardly any human activity anyway.

"Around 70 percent of the areas are therefore in northern Europe or Scandinavia," explains Araújo. "The population there is very unevenly distributed, and there are large areas with forests but very few people."

Renaturation - active or passive?

The next step involved determining what kind of renaturation measures could be implemented where. The focus was primarily on the animal species living there.

"The goal, of course, would be for humans not to have to intervene in the ecosystem at all and for nature to regulate itself, so to speak," explains the ecologist.

However, this requires a few creatures that are important for the respective ecosystem, such as herbivores like deer, reindeer and ibex, but also carnivores like lynx, bears and wolves.

"Depending on whether these animals are present, we have divided the regions into those areas where passive renaturation would be possible and those areas where active renaturation is required."

Passive renaturation means that humans intervene as little as possible in natural processes.

In active restoration, on the other hand, humans intervene directly in the ecosystem and reintroduce the most important animal species into the region, for example.

"This is particularly necessary in regions that were previously farmed and where there are now hardly any animal species that occur there naturally."