In the coming days, the European Parliament will position itself on a historic text for biodiversity, the climate and the resilience of our societies: the regulation on the nature restoration. This ambitious text aims to implement restoration measures on 20% of the land and sea areas of the European Union (EU) by 2030, and on all ecosystems in need of restoration by at 2050.
However, this legislative proposal, like that which aims to reduce the use of pesticides in the EU, is the subject of strong attacks in the European Parliament, going as far as the request for its rejection – in particular by the European People’s Party (EPP). Reason invoked? These laws would threaten food security in Europe.
A vertiginous decline
Faced with the vulnerability of our agricultural system in the face of the climate crises and the erosion of biodiversity, twenty-seven farmers’, international solidarity, environmental protection and consumer organizations stress on the contrary the importance of this regulation for ensure the resilience and productivity of agricultural ecosystems.
The future of our agriculture depends on healthy ecosystems. It’s a fact: since the 1990s, the populations of birds living in agricultural environments have experienced a vertiginous decline (a third of the numbers disappeared between 2001 and 2018 in France), as have the populations of pollinating insects.
These disappearances are symptomatic of the poor state of conservation of our agricultural land. In question: the intensification of agricultural practices over the past sixty years (massive use of fertilizers and pesticides, enlargement of plots, uprooting of hedges, etc.), but also the artificialization of soils, which destroys and fragments natural spaces. and agricultural.
Agricultural production is strongly impacted by the consequences of climate change and the degradation of biodiversity. According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), land degradation has notably “led to a reduction in agricultural productivity on 23% of the earth’s surface”and the monetary value of harvest deficits related to the disappearance of pollinators represents “between 235 and 577 billion dollars” [entre 217 et 534 milliards d’euros environ] per year globally.
Diversification and profitability
Because biodiversity fulfills vital and irreplaceable ecological functions (soil health, water and carbon storage, plant pollination, etc.), which are essential for food production and the viability of agricultural sectors. Thus, the more diversified they are, the more the agrosystems are productive, profitable (because they are less dependent on synthetic inputs) and robust (in the face of diseases and climatic hazards in particular).
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