The European Union has recently adopted the Nature Restoration Law to address the widespread degradation of ecosystems. A key concern now is how effectively the law will be implemented across member states. We highlight the potential of spontaneous ecological succession as a viable method for ecosystem restoration, often overlooked in favor of active restoration approaches. Analysis of 530 global studies and 156 European studies found that spontaneous succession succeeded in restoring natural or semi-natural vegetation in 60% and 67% of cases, respectively. This restoration approach, when applied under suitable conditions, can effectively recover degraded or destroyed ecosystems while being cost-efficient. We argue that the ecological benefits of spontaneous succession should be more widely considered in restoration projects.

List of European studies used for comparison with world studies (published in Prach & Walker, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108561167).