The loss of biodiversity as a serious environmental threat. The need for a new legal paradigm

The starting point of this legal research is the assumption that the loss of biodiversity is the environmental threat that, together with climate change, is looming on the planet, since the two phenomena are intrinsically linked and correlated. A scientific study showed that human societies might have already exceeded some of the planetary limits by placing themselves in a danger zone. At a global level, there has been an awareness of the emergency linked to the speed of the rate of biodiversity loss (which has increased in recent years) also deriving from a legal approach to the protection of biodiversity which is mainly voluntary and not binding on the states. For the effective protection of biodiversity, a crucial point seems to be the search for new legal instruments to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of protection. In December 2022, ‘The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’ was adopted, which has the goal of protecting at least 30% of land and marine areas by 2030 and restoring degraded ecosystems. This agreement marks a crucial change for an effective protection of biodiversity on a global level, even if it seems to have introduced only procedural obligations (and therefore does not appear to be a binding global agreement). At a European level, until the Green Deal, the protection for biodiversity has been ensured through general rules of soft law, accompanied by a sectoral discipline of hard law through the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive (as transposed in the domestic legislation). Starting from the Green Deal, awareness has been gained from the emergency linked to the loss of biodiversity (moreover synergistic with the mitigation of climate change) and of the necessity to change the protection paradigm moving from a soft law approach to general rules, binding for all Member States. An important milestone is the very recent ‘Nature Restoration Law’, which has been approved by the European Parliament on february 2024 and that provides binding obligations for all Member States, as well a support for the fight against the loss of biodiversity, not only from the protected areas but also from cities and other areas not protected.