Enhancing the EU Green Deal with Landscape Finance

The EU Green Deal holds significant promise for the environment, however, to translate this promise into reality, the pressing issue of landscape finance needs addressing. Despite the potential for nature restoration to benefit various sectors in Europe, there remains a significant funding gap that demands urgent attention. The cost of land degradation for sectors such as food and agriculture in the EU is estimated to be around €1.25 billion annually for farmers, underscoring the crucial need for substantial financial support to achieve widespread restoration.

A new financing model known as Landscape Finance, endorsed by 19 international organizations including the World Resource Institute and The Nature Conservancy, offers a holistic and community-driven approach to landscape restoration that can help bridge this gap. By uniting local stakeholders to restore landscapes, this model not only delivers ecological benefits but also contributes to building social cohesion and prosperity, aligning with the vision of the EU Green Deal.

To incorporate Landscape Finance into EU policies, it is vital for policymakers to recognize landscapes and landscape partnerships as crucial components for transformative change. Allocating resources to support multi-stakeholder landscape partnerships and incentivizing activities that restore ecosystems can be instrumental in driving long-term restoration. Additionally, there needs to be a focus on developing standardized accounting and reporting frameworks for landscapes to engage the private sector in sustainable finance regulations.

Incorporating landscape restoration into national plans, providing earmarked funding for landscapes, and ensuring public funding for landscape restoration initiatives are essential steps for achieving the objectives of the EU Green Deal. By adopting a holistic perspective and integrating green infrastructure with grey infrastructure projects, EU institutions and member states can make infrastructure investments more resilient to climate change and generate valuable public benefits.

As the pressure to implement the EU Green Deal intensifies, Landscape Finance offers a promising solution to support nature restoration and the transition to regenerative practices at a landscape scale. This approach aligns with the mission of Commonland, a not-for-profit organization working to restore landscapes and regenerate the Earth. Commonland’s 4 Returns framework is facilitating landscape restoration globally, with the aim of restoring 100 million hectares of degraded land to ensure the thriving of ecosystems, economies, and communities.

In conclusion, Landscape Finance presents a powerful opportunity to bridge the funding gap and drive holistic landscape restoration, supporting the vision of the EU Green Deal. By recognizing the value of landscapes and integrating landscape restoration into national plans, policymakers can catalyse transformative change and make lasting impacts on Europe’s landscapes. With the pressing need for effective financing frameworks, Landscape Finance is more essential than ever in achieving the ambitious goals of the EU Green Deal.