Search Results (6)

The ongoing decade of UN restoration matches with the European goal of bringing nature back into our lives, including in urban systems, and Nature Restoration Regulation. Within such a framework, this work is aimed at highlighting the ecological rationale and strategic value of an NRRP measure devoted to forest restoration in Italian Metropolitan Cities, and at assessing respective preliminary results. Therefore, the measure’s overarching goal (not to create urban parks or gardens, but activate forest recovery), geographic extent and scope (over 4000 ha and more than 4 million planted trees and shrubs across the country), plantation model (mandatory use of native species consistent with local potential vegetation, density of 1000 seedlings per ha, use of at least four tree and four shrub species in each project, with a minimum proportion of 70% for trees, certified provenance for reproductive material), and compulsory management activities (maintenance and replacement of any dead plants for at least five years), are herein shown and explained under an ecological perspective. Current implementation outcomes were thus assessed in terms of coherence and expected biodiversity benefits, especially with respect to ecological and biogeographic consistency of planted forests, representativity in relation to national and European plant diversity, biogeographic interest and conservation concern of adopted plants, and potential contribution to the EU Habitats Directive. Compliance with international strategic goals and normative rules, along with recognizable advantages of the measure and limitations to be solved, are finally discussed. In conclusion, the forestation model proposed for the Italian Metropolitan Cities proved to be fully applicable in its ecological rationale, with expected benefits in terms of biodiversity support plainly met, and even exceeded, at the current stage of implementation, especially in terms of the contribution to protected habitats. These promising preliminary results allow the model to be recognized at the international level as a good practice that may help achieve protection targets and sustainable development goals within and beyond urban systems. Full article

Mediterranean subtidal reefs host ecologically significant habitats, including forests of Cystoseira spp., which form complex benthic communities within the photic zone. These habitats are increasingly degraded due to climate change, invasive species, and anthropogenic pressures, particularly in the eastern Mediterranean. In support of habitat monitoring under the EU Natura 2000 directive and the Nature Restoration Regulation, this study investigates the utility of high-resolution satellite remote sensing for mapping subtidal brown algae and associated benthic classes. Using imagery from the SuperDove sensor (Planet Labs, San Francisco, CA, USA), we developed an integrated mapping workflow at the Natura 2000 site GR2420009. Aquatic reflectance was derived using ACOLITE v.20250114.0, and both supervised classification and spectral unmixing were implemented in the EnMAP Toolbox v.3.16.3 within QGIS. A Random Forest classifier (100 fully grown trees) achieved high thematic accuracy across all habitat types (F1 scores: 0.87–1.00), with perfect classification of shallow soft bottoms and strong performance for Cystoseira s.l. (F1 = 0.94) and Seagrass (F1 = 0.93). Spectral unmixing further enabled quantitative estimation of fractional cover, with high predictive accuracy for deep soft bottoms (R² = 0.99; RPD = 18.66), shallow soft bottoms (R² = 0.98; RPD = 8.72), Seagrass (R² = 0.88; RPD = 3.01) and Cystoseira s.l. (R² = 0.82; RPD = 2.37). The lower performance for rocky reefs with other cover (R² = 0.71) reflects spectral heterogeneity and shadowing effects. The results highlight the effectiveness of combining classification and unmixing approaches for benthic habitat mapping using CubeSat constellations, offering scalable tools for large-area monitoring and ecosystem assessment. Despite challenges in field data acquisition, the presented framework provides a robust foundation for remote sensing-based conservation planning in optically shallow marine environments. Full article

This study examines the market reaction to the approval of the Nature Restoration Law, a key component of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, and its implications for biodiversity-related financial risks. Using an event study methodology, we analyze the equity price movements of companies listed in the MSCI Europe Index that are equally weighted in relation to the announcement. We select the RepRisk Due Diligence Score, focusing on incidents linked to landscapes, ecosystems, and biodiversity, as a measure of biodiversity risk. At first, it seems that companies with a high RepRisk Due Diligence Score show limited or positive abnormal returns, suggesting that biodiversity risks are already priced for companies that have experienced incidents linked to this issue. Conversely, firms with lower biodiversity risk exposure see null or negative impacts, reflecting heightened investor concerns about new environmental regulations or compliance costs. Although the event does not have a systemic impact on European companies in the index, it seems that some sectors are affected when analyzed using parametric and non-parametric distributions. Full article

Following the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the European Union (EU) introduced an EU Nature Restoration Regulation. This study systematically compares the restoration regulation with the KM-GBF, focusing on their implications for forest ecosystems. The paper identifies areas of alignment, divergence, and potential gaps concerning habitat restoration, species protection, climate resilience, and sustainable natural resource use. Employing a grounded methodology, the analysis begins with the 23 KM-GBF targets and proceeds to the 28 articles of the restoration regulation. The findings underscore the need for better alignment between the KM-GBF, the restoration regulation, and other forest-related EU policies. The study emphasises the importance of a coherent and integrated EU policy approach to address the complex challenges and varied policy objectives facing forests. It concludes that amendments to the restoration regulation have significantly diluted its potential impact, limiting the EU Member States’ accountability and ability to meet KM-GBF goals and targets. It further stresses the need for strategies to reconcile divergent EU policy pathways, support forest management and restoration efforts, and align with global biodiversity objectives. Full article

In 2022, the European Commission introduced, for the first time in its history, a windfall profit tax to be applied on “excessive” profits realized by qualified businesses operating in the “Oil and Gas” sector. Immediately after its implementation, questions arose as to its sustainability and its consistency with constitutional principles of the different member states regulating the domestic power to tax. To assess the consistency with the aforesaid rules, the article samples two countries, inside and outside the EU (Italy and Australia, respectively), and the historical precedents of the matter. Italy has been chosen due to the particularly stringent set of principles regulating the power of the legislature to tax, and Australia has been chosen because of the long-standing experience with superprofit taxes. In most of the scenarios analyzed, one common feature emerged: the complexity in defining the “Extra” nature of the profits and, consequently, the uncertainties in the calculation of the taxable base. In the case of Italy, for instance, the legislator had to intervene in several different moments to fine-tune the taxable base and restore certainty to the tax system. As a conclusion, while the taxation of extra profits should not per se be disregarded, its implementation demands a more robust and precise legal framework together with the understanding that the introduction of such a levy would be a one-way journey for the tax systems: windfall profits taxes would be here to stay. Full article

Regardless of the efforts of the European Union, freshwaters are in a state of environmental crisis. The Water Framework Directive has established a basis for the protection and restoration of European inland and coastal waters. In parallel, the Birds and Habitats Directives protect, maintain or restore, at favourable conservation status, selected species and habitats under a representative network of protected areas. Hence, the interplay between the EU regulations is of high scientific interest and practical relevance. In this article, Greece is used as a case study to explore whether anticipated synergies between the Water Framework Directive and the Nature Directives result in a better ecological status in the protected areas than in the non-protected ones. We investigated whether the ecological qualities that are defined by three biological quality elements (BQEs) differ between the WFD monitoring sites that are located within the Natura 2000 protected areas and those that are not. We identified a total of 148 river monitoring sites that are located within the Natura 2000 network, which corresponds to 30% of the WFD monitoring network. By employing ordered logit models for each BQE, we found that the ecological quality has the same likelihood to fail the WFD target of “good” quality for sites that are located within and outside the Natura 2000 protected areas. Our results confirmed our hypothesis that the EU directives have little synergy when it comes to restoration of ecological status of Greek running waters, according to the WFD. Full article