Finland must propose restoration funding to the EU budget

From the reader. The EU’s restoration regulation entered into force last summer, and Finland has started making plans to implement the regulation.

The goals of the regulation – significantly increasing the restoration of nature and stopping nature loss in the long run – are extremely important. Achieving the goals, however, requires not only good plans, but also significant increases in funding.

We have previously suggested that in order to increase funding, the state should start a natural resource use rights trade, where the cause of natural harm pays the state and thus accumulates funds for restoration and protection measures.

In addition to increasing government funding, it is important to develop the natural value market of the private sector. The natural value market means that, for example, biodiversity and water resources are defined with an economic value, and companies could trade for the protection and restoration of natural values.

In addition, the Finnish state would now have a thousand taala place to influence the EU’s financial instruments. At the EU level, there is currently a discussion about the multiannual budget after 2027 (multiannual budget MFF).

So far, the discussion has focused on safety and competitiveness. At the same time, the crises caused by climate change and nature loss are increasing in Europe, and unfortunately there is no change for the better yet in sight. For this reason, it would be important to strengthen the financing of restoration and nature conservation in the EU’s multi-year budget.

We encourage the Finnish government to propose targeted restoration funding (Nature Restoration Fund) in the EU’s multi-year budget. Several EU member states, agricultural policy stakeholders and organizations have already expressed their support for this. We also hope that the Finnish government will see the importance of this issue.

Mai Suominen

leading forest expert, WWF