Europe Losing 600 Football Pitches of Green Land Every Day: Report

Europe is losing green space at an alarming rate — equivalent to 600 football pitches every day, according to a new investigation by the Green to Grey project.

The study, part of the Arena for Journalism in Europe initiative, was conducted in collaboration with 11 leading European newsrooms, including The Guardian, Le Monde, Die Zeit, and Gazeta Wyborcza. This is the first analysis of its kind, measuring the scale of green land loss across Europe with the help of scientists from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA).

The Extent of the Loss

Covering 30 countries — representing 96% of the European Economic Area (EEA) — the analysis reveals that every nation examined is losing natural and agricultural areas, though some far more severely than others.

The five countries with the highest green losses between 2018 and 2023 were:

• Turkey – more than 1,800 sq km of natural and cropland lost

• Poland – over 1,000 sq km

• France – 950 sq km

• Germany – 720 sq km

• United Kingdom – 604 sq km

Across Europe, about 9,000 sq km of land — an area roughly the size of Cyprus — has been turned from green to grey between 2018 and 2023. That’s nearly 1,500 sq km a year, or about 30 sq km every week.

From Nature to Concrete

Satellite imagery analysis over five years shows how rapidly Europe’s green land is being consumed by roads, housing, industrial zones, and luxury developments. The report estimates that nature accounts for 900 sq km of the losses annually, while agricultural land contributes another 600 sq km.

This dual loss poses grave threats to Europe’s biodiversity, food security, and climate resilience.

Housing and road construction are the most common developments, representing a quarter of all cases. However, the investigation also found that luxury tourism and industrial projects are major contributors to the destruction.

Luxury and Environmental Degradation

In Portugal, for example, about 300 hectares (740 acres) of protected sand dunes at Galé Beach near Melides have been cleared to build the CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club, a resort whose 75-hectare golf course consumes up to 800,000 litres of water a day to maintain its greens.

Turkey, which tops the list for green land loss, built on 1,860 sq km of natural and crop land during the five-year period — accounting for more than 20% of all losses in Europe.

The report highlights the Çaltılıdere wetland in Turkey’s İzmir province — once home to flamingos, pelicans, and sea bass — now buried under concrete for a luxury yacht marina. The wetland was also a vital carbon sink and flood defence.

Examples Across the Continent

In northern Greece, a large windfarm is under construction in the Vermio mountains — a legally protected “roadless area” of wilderness.

In Germany, around 500,000 trees were cut down near Berlin to make way for a Tesla gigafactory, as part of a government-approved plan to double production to 1 million cars a year.

A New Lens on Europe’s Green Loss

While deforestation in the Amazon has been tracked for decades through satellite data, this is the first time Europe’s loss of natural and agricultural land has been measured and visualized at such scale.

The Green to Grey project, spearheaded by Arena for Journalism in Europe, partnered with outlets such as:

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), Datadista (Spain), De Standaard (Belgium), Die Zeit (Germany), Facta (Italy), Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland), Le Monde (France), Long Play (Finland), Reporters United (Greece), The Black Sea (Turkey), and The Guardian (UK) — with scientific support from NINA.

The findings present a stark warning: as Europe urbanizes, its natural buffers against climate change and food insecurity are rapidly disappearing — one football pitch at a time.

The writer of this article is Dr. Seema Javed, an environmentalist & a communications professional in the field of climate and energy