Aligning Urban Greening Policies with the EU Nature Restoration Regulation: Gaps and Prospects in Italy

Only in the last decade has the issue of biodiversity assumed a prominent position within European policy frameworks. Notably, the interconnection between biodiversity and urban environments is explicitly addressed in the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, wherein the planning and development of urban green spaces are identified as essential measures to advance nature restoration goals and promote the sustainable management of ecosystems across all sectors. A central component of the EU Biodiversity Strategy is the Nature Restoration Regulation, which entered into force in June 2024. This Regulation designates urban ecosystems as key ecological zones of implementation, mandating that there should be no net loss in the total national area of urban green space and of urban tree canopy cover in urban ecosystem areas by 2030, followed by their progressive increase in subsequent years. Article 14 of the Regulation requires each Member State to develop a National Restoration Plan, which must include detailed provisions outlining the measures to be taken in order to meet the legally binding targets set by the Regulation. In Italy, the still limited but emerging urban greening policies constitute a valuable foundation for supporting the actions outlined in the EU Biodiversity Strategy and, more importantly, for facilitating the implementation of the Regulation. Within this framework, the Urban Greening Plans (in Italian “Piani del Verde”) emerge as a significant area of inquiry for evaluating their potential alignment with the targets established by the legislation. Within this framework, this chapter aims to construct an overview of current greening policies in Italy and to examine the Urban Greening Plan as a strategic planning tool that may contribute to the realization of the objectives and targets set forth by the Regulation in relation to urban ecosystems.