ABSTRACT
Ecological restoration has emerged as one of the leading paradigms in the context of environmental governance during the past decades. With the release of a Proposal for an EU restoration law in 2022, the European Commission underlined the pioneering role of the European Union in this regard. In this chapter, we analyse the precise alignment between ecological restoration and a rights-based approach to nature protection. Using the recently proposed EU restoration law as a benchmark, this chapter finds that a rights-based approach to ecological restoration might engender some additional complexities yet ultimately presents itself as a logical lever for more comprehensive restoration efforts on the European continent.
