Stichting IUCN Nederlands Comité
IUCN NL
Nature is our foundation.
ID: 771020536080-26
Lobbying Activity
Response to European Water Resilience Strategy
3 Mar 2025
Water resilience is one of Europes most pressing challenges. Increasing droughts, floods, and declining water quality are putting ecosystems, agriculture, and communities at risk. Wetlands, peatlands, and river systems are natures most powerful water management tools, yet over 60% of these ecosystems have been degraded due to drainage, agriculture, and urban development. To secure Europes water future, large-scale restoration of these critical ecosystems isnt just an optionits a necessity. Wetlands act as natural sponges, absorbing excess rainwater to mitigate flooding while gradually releasing water during droughts. Many wetlands are also large carbon reservoirs and have the potential to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Peatlands, despite covering only 3% of the Earth's surface, store more carbon than all the worlds forests combined. They also filter billions of liters of freshwater, improving both water quality and availability. Restoring these ecosystems offers a cost-effective, sustainable solution that supports climate adaptation, boosts biodiversity, and strengthens economic resilience, ultimately delivering a net gain for society. Inaction will lead to escalating costsbillions will be spent on flood damage, drought relief, and water purification. However, by investing in restoration, Europe can safeguard its water resources, enhance carbon sequestration, and create green jobs in rural areas. EU policies, such as the Nature Restoration Regulation and EU Climate Law, already acknowledge the urgency of this issue. Yet, serious challenges remain in scaling up implementation, including a lack of local political and public support, limited business cases for wetland restoration, conflicting interests, and decisions that prioritize harmful developments, exacerbating ecosystem degradation. To make the EU Water Resilience Framework a success, its crucial to address these implementation barriers head-on. The framework must incentivize landowners and land-users to restore wetland hydrology, re-establish high water levels in peatlands, and support biodiversity and natural water purification. This would maximize not only water retention and carbon storage but also ecosystem health. Extensive knowledge on scaling up wetland restoration is already available, generated by EU-funded projects like WaterLands, REWET, Restore4Cs, WetHorizons, ALFA Wetlands, and several past Interreg and EU Life initiatives. Policymakers have access to robust, science-based information that underscores the urgency for action. The scientific case is clearnow, we must overcome the barriers to large-scale implementation. Investing in large scale restoration of wetlands, peatlands and river systems is an investment in Europes stability, economy, public health, and environmental security. The longer we wait, the higher the costs will climb. Therefore, the EU Water Resilience Strategy must prioritize and accelerate the large-scale restoration of wetlands, peatlands, and river systems as a cornerstone of sustainable water management. In parallel, strengthening the business case for landscape restoration and addressing harmful financial incentives that exacerbate environmental risks are critical to long-term success. Some useful scientific resources: https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/publications/europes-state-of-water-2024 https://siwi.org/publications/securing-water-for-ecosystems-and-human-well-being-the-importance-of-environmental-flows/ https://iucn.org/resources/publication/iucn-global-standard-nature-based-solutions-first-edition Global peatland database: https://maps.work/gpd/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468584423000363 European wetland map: https://zenodo.org/records/14717561 https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.838502/full
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