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Marion Ebster is project manager at CIPRA International. (c) CIPRA International

The EU renaturation law was passed in June 2024 – narrowly, but adopted nonetheless. Among other things, it declares that member states must preserve green spaces as well as trees that provide shade and cooling, especially in cities. This means that green spaces in urban areas must no longer be reduced, as undeveloped land plays a key role in climate change adaptation.

This will not be enough, because we need more greenery, more trees and more soil that is open, breathing and water-storing, especially in urban areas. Both the increasing heat and the heavy rainfall events are a direct indication of this. However, our awareness and the political will to do so are – like the soil – at the mercy of erosion. Why is that?

Economic considerations prevent more natural diversity and the preservation of open, unspoilt areas in settlement areas. Our decisions are determined by cost-benefit thinking, which sees the natural environment as a resource. All too often, issues such as maintenance, care, cleanliness and efficiency take centre stage. Sealed surfaces mean car parks, business customers, easy maintenance and little care, but also: no life in or on the ground.

We are not doing ourselves any favours, because healthy soil is the largest terrestrial carbon store, contains more living creatures in one handful than the number of humans on the entire Earth – whose name is in some ways a synonym for “soil” – and provides us with food. This soil life (often invisible to the naked eye), and the matter-of-factness with which it carries out its work, tempts us to ignore and neglect it.

We do not need to maintain the status quo – we need to break it up and loosen it. This is the only way we can return air and water to built-up soil and restore its vitality. Our lives too depend on this.

Looking for unsealing projects in the Alpine region: in June 2024, CIPRA International launched an Alpine-wide competition for municipalities, civil society initiatives, researchers and companies. Interested parties can take part here: www.cipra.org/en/ground-breaker-award