Europe Loses Green Spaces at Alarming Rate: 600 Football Pitches Daily

According to a recent investigation, Europe has been losing green spaces at an alarming rate, with an area the size of Cyprus turned "green to grey" between 2018 and 2023. The analysis of satellite imagery across the UK and mainland Europe shows that the continent is losing natural and agricultural land at a staggering pace, with an estimated 1,500 sq km (580 sq miles) of green space consumed by construction each year.

The five countries with the highest green land losses during this period were Turkey (1,860 sq km), Poland (over 1,000 sq km), France (950 sq km), Germany (720 sq km), and the UK (604 sq km). This equates to a loss of almost 30 sq km per week, or 600 football pitches per day, across Europe.

The investigation, conducted by the Guardian and partners, reveals that the loss of green spaces is not limited to rural areas, but also includes urban green spaces and protected natural habitats. In Portugal, for example, nearly 300 hectares of protected sand dunes were destroyed to make way for a luxury golf resort, while in Turkey, a vital wetland was buried under concrete to build a marina for luxury yachts.

To address this issue, a citizen science project is being launched to crowdsource data and establish a global vision of the impact humans have had on the planet. The project aims to empower individuals to help verify and document the scale of nature loss, with the goal of driving policy changes to protect the environment.