The Federal Ministry for the Environment is currently drawing up the National Nature Restoration Plan. This sets out in detail how the requirements of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation are to be implemented in Germany. One element of particular relevance to landscape architecture is Article 8 on urban ecosystems. The bdla has summarised the key provisions and the current status of implementation in a concise briefing and contextualised them for planning practice.
The aim of the EU Restoration Regulation (Restoration Reg.), which came into force in 2024, is to restore damaged ecosystems and counteract the loss of biodiversity. To this end, the Regulation sets out phased targets for different ecosystems. The National Restoration Plan sets out in detail how these targets are to be achieved in Germany.
The Federal Ministry for the Environment presented an initial draft of the German National Restoration Plan (NWP) in April 2026. The bdla took part in the public consultation process and provided comments on the draft from the perspective of landscape architecture. In September 2026, the draft will be submitted to the European Commission. Following its assessment and any comments, the plan will be revised and finalised next year.
Article 8 on urban ecosystems is particularly relevant to planning practice. It focuses on the development of urban green spaces and tree canopy cover and sets out binding quantitative targets for these. In principle, there must be no net loss by the end of 2030; from 2031 onwards, upward trends must be achieved up to a satisfactory level yet to be determined. This gives the preservation and further development of urban green spaces additional weight in urban development.
The implementation of Article 8 also raises a number of practical questions: Which local authorities are affected, and for which ones does an exemption apply until 2030? How are urban ecosystem areas defined? What counts as urban green space and tree cover, and how are these measured?
The Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUKN) has now published a Q&A guide to clarify the details of Article 8. In addition, a legal analysis of the W-VO published by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) provides a legal interpretation of Article 8. The bdla has compiled the key questions and information relevant to landscape architecture from these sources, supplemented them with its own expert analysis, and presented them in a concise briefing for planning practice:
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