EU Plans to Plant 3bn Trees to Tackle the Biodiversity Crisis

The EU wants to plant 3 billion trees within its borders by 2030 and develop a plan to protect Europe's largest primeval forests. These ideas are both part of a project to tackle the biodiversity crisis.

Experts worry that there is a lack of strategy on how to implement the initiatives. For instance, the EU has mentioned that it wants to classify one third of the EU's land and seas as protected areas (currently, 26% of the EU's land and 11% of its oceans are identified as protected), but the new initiative doesn't include instructions on when or how this goal will be achieved. Greenpeace's director of central and eastern Europe claimed that the initiative could be delayed until 2024 and added that discussions on funding and enforcement mechanisms should begin immediately.

The lack of strategy and absence of an implementation plan means that the EU's initiative is just an idea so far. There is no guarantee that 3 billon trees will be planted, primeval forests protected or new areas classified as protected, until the EU establishes how it will achieve these goals.