Nature restoration becomes top priority for economies worldwide

Considering the inevitable effects of climate change, restoring nature and ecosystems is more than crucial if we want to create better living conditions for the current generations and a safe environment for the ones to come. EU regulations, together with sustainability initiatives coming from the private sector, will play a significant role in this journey.

By Anda Sebesi

The EU’s new Nature Restoration law, which passed through the European Parliament in mid-July, paves the way for even greater biodiversity and climate action. As Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius said at the European Parliament’s Plenary in Strasbourg, this law is “not about restoring nature for the sake of nature. It is about ensuring a habitable environment where the well-being of current and future generations is ensured, and where the land and seas continue having the capacity to provide us with the goods and services that our lives and economies fully depend on.”

The new law underpins the EU’s biodiversity strategy for 2030, which recognizes that climate action means not only reducing greenhouse gas emissions but also protecting nature. It also makes sound economic sense: estimates show between EUR 8 and EUR 38’s worth of benefits for every euro spent. The Nature Restoration Law will also build on the EU LIFE programme, which has funded nearly 6,000 environmental protection and climate action projects since 1992. Currently, Europe’s natural environment is in alarming decline, with more than 80% of habitats in poor condition, so it is critical to restore wetlands, rivers, forests, grasslands, marine ecosystems, and the species they host.

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Even before the adoption of this law, in 2022, the WWF announced that over 400 hectares of floodplain between the Garla Mare and Vrata localities in Romania’s Mehedinti county had been returned to nature following ecological reconstruction works which involved the reconnection of the ponds on the Danube bank with the river.

Initiated in 2020, the ecological reconstruction at Garla Mare-Vrata involved consolidating and raising the banks of the transversal canal (which connects the Danube and the pond) in order to increase the water transport capacity of the Danube, creating water holes to obtain a mosaic of habitats for aquatic species, strengthening dams to increase the amount of water accumulated in the basin of interest, and setting up a fishing area for the local community.

The project, carried out by WWF Romania and funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation under the Living Danube Partnership, contributes to restoring the area’s biodiversity, having already had visible effects, and creates opportunities for economic development as it makes the area attractive for fishing and ecotourism.

“The works at Garla Mare-Vrata within the Living Danube Partnership have already made long-term positive impact. Now the place is a small delta that is home to over 80 species. It will also contribute to the storage of over 5 million cubic metres of water during floods on the Danube. Last but not least, the project sets the stage for the social-economic development of the local community,” says Mihaela Nita, Public Affairs Manager at Coca-Cola Romania.

While still a little-known area, the newest reconstructed wetland in Romania at Garla Mare-Vrata belongs to the Danube Natura 2000 sites Garla Mare-Maglavit and Gruia-Garla Mare, designated based on EU and Romanian legislation to protect a number of species of flora and fauna. The “Delta” at the other end of the river’s flow into the Black Sea is a place of feeding, reproduction, and rest for over 80 species, some of which are vulnerable, in danger of extinction.

In addition to the benefits it has brought to the environment and the community, the renaturation has the potential to reduce the risk of flooding for localities downstream of Garla Mare.

Part of Something Bigger

The ecological reconstruction works in Garla Mare-Vrata are part of the Living Danube Partnership, an extensive programme that’s being implemented across six countries: Romania, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. It is a unique, cross-sectoral partnership between WWF-CEE, The Coca-Cola Foundation, and the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR). Its goal was to contribute to one third of the objectives of Danube countries to restore 151.3 km2 of floodplain and wetland areas by 2021.

From a range of backgrounds and perspectives, partners from water management to nature and forest management, municipalities and county governments, landowners and land users, local anglers and hunters, as well as entrepreneurs, have come together and worked to restore rivers and wetlands for the benefit of people and nature.

With USD 4.4 million in support from The Coca-Cola Foundation and an eight-year history, the Living Danube Partnership has so far meant the restoration of wetlands and floodplains along the Danube and its tributaries, on an area of 5,462 ha—the equivalent of over 7,422 football fields. The ecological reconstruction works have thus increased the storage capacity of the Danube meadow by over 13 million cubic meters—a quantity that would fill over 4,800 olympic pools.

“The Living Danube Partnership is living proof of the fact that working together is vital if we are to safeguard the supply of water in the EU, stop and reverse the decline in biodiversity, and tackle climate change,” says Sofia Kilifi, Sustainability & Community manager for Europe at The Coca-Cola Company.

The experience from Garla Mare and other projects carried out through the Living Danube Partnership in the Danube basin has served as inspiration for larger projects developed in Romania. For example, the Danube Floodplain project, coordinated by the National Waters Administration, has identified the potential for reconstruction along the Danube river from Germany to Romania. More particularly, through this project, Romania set the feasibility study for the Bistret area. Additionally, through Romania’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), EUR 150 million have been allocated until 2026 to projects which are designed to remove obstacles from waters in order to protect biodiversity—a direct outcome of the two projects mentioned above.