Europe is losing green space that once supported wildlife, absorbed carbon and produced food at a rate equivalent to 600 football pitches every day, according to an investigation.

Satellite imagery analysed across the UK and mainland Europe over a five-year period reveals the alarming pace at which green land is turning grey – consumed by tarmac for roads, and by bricks and mortar for luxury golf courses and new housing developments.

While the loss of the Amazon rainforest has been closely tracked for years using satellite monitoring, the true scale of Europe’s disappearing green land has never before been measured in the same way.

In the first investigation of its kind, the Green to Grey project – working alongside scientists from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) – has mapped the extent of nature and farmland lost to human development.

The cross-border project led by the Arena for Journalism in Europe (Arena), NINA, Norwegian broadcaster NRK and other media outlets in 11 countries, found that Europe loses around 1,500 square kilometres (580 square miles) of green land to construction every year. Between 2018 and 2023, about 9,000 square kilometres – an area the size of Cyprus – were converted from green to grey, equivalent to almost 30 square kilometres a week, or 600 football pitches a day.

Natural land accounts for the majority of these losses, at around 900 square kilometres annually, but the data also shows that agricultural land is being built on at a rate of roughly 600 square kilometres a year – with serious implications for Europe’s food security and public health.

Steve Carver, a professor of wilderness at the University of Leeds, said: “Land lost to development is one of the primary drivers of wilderness loss and biodiversity decline. But we are also losing cropland and productive land as our cities expand into the green belt and on to agricultural land.”

The most common developments, making up roughly a quarter of all cases, were housing and roads. However, natural and agricultural landscapes are also being destroyed to make way for luxury tourism, consumer developments and industrial projects.

In Portugal, Arena found that nearly 300 hectares (740 acres) of protected sand dunes at Galé Beach near Melides – about an hour south of Lisbon – have been lost to build a new golf course at the CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club, where properties are expected to sell for around £5.6 million.

The resort, still under construction, will serve as a second home for Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, who works for the development. It is being built on Natura 2000 land, which should be protected under EU law.

The development markets itself as offering “the simple luxury of European living” on “the last untouched Atlantic coast in southern Europe”. Its 75-hectare golf course is estimated to use as much as 800,000 litres of water per day to keep the greens pristine.

Exceptions to development on Natura 2000 land may only be granted if there is an overriding public interest. Portuguese authorities approved the resort, owned by US property firm Discovery Land Company, on economic grounds – a justification environmental lawyers say does not meet the legal threshold.

Ioannis Agapakis, a lawyer for the environmental law organisation ClientEarth, said a golf course did not meet the requirements for such an exemption.

“It is obviously not overriding public interest,” he said. “The mere fact that you find economic benefits or some type of economic development from a project does not make it overriding public interest.”

Discovery Land Company said in a statement: “We are developing CostaTerra to be a model for environmental stewardship and sustainability in the region.

“Every aspect of the property – from the design of the golf course, to rainwater and waste management practices, to the development and preservation of wildlife habitat and corridors – was designed to meet or exceed EU standards, including the Natura 2000 framework.

“We’ll continue to innovate and find solutions to make CostaTerra the most responsible property of its kind.”

Brooksbank was approached for a statement but declined to comment.

In Turkey, the Çaltılıdere wetland in İzmir province on the Aegean coast has been buried beneath more than a square kilometre of concrete foundations for a marina intended for the repair and construction of luxury yachts, the investigation found.

Once officially designated as a protected wetland, Çaltılıdere was home to flamingos, pelicans, cormorants, sea bream and sea bass. It also served as a vital carbon sink and natural flood defence.

However, local authorities revoked its protected status in 2017 after a controversial and heated commission meeting. Satellite imagery now shows the former wetland, once a crucial stop for migratory birds, replaced by concrete infrastructure.

Yatek, the industry cooperative developing the marina project, says it will bring huge economic growth and thousands of jobs to the area. “The richest people in Turkey and in the world will bring their big yachts here and repair them or have them built,” Yatek’s former director said in an interview in 2021. The cooperative foresees manufacturing as many as 132 luxury yachts a year.

Yatek said in a statement that its project was “a fully compliant initiative that strictly follows all legal procedures, including the acquisition of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report”, a document detailing a project’s effects for permission to be granted under EU law.

“The environmental impacts and other ecological aspects of the project have been thoroughly assessed by the competent authorities of our country, which have granted a positive EIA decision. Accordingly, the entire project process continues lawfully and in line with the relevant legislation,” the statement said.

Turkey, the largest country included in the analysis, recorded the greatest loss of green land between 2018 and 2023 – 1,860 square kilometres of natural and agricultural terrain, accounting for more than a fifth of the total loss across Europe.

But the trend extends across the continent. In northern Greece’s Vermio Mountains – an area legally defined as roadless wilderness – a large wind farm is being constructed across the Western and Central Macedonia regions.

According to Aer Soléir, the Dublin-based company that ultimately owns the Vermio wind farms, the project complies fully with Greek and EU environmental regulations and includes reforestation works alongside construction.

In Germany, half a million trees were felled near Berlin to make way for Tesla’s gigafactory, following government approval to double production to one million cars a year. Tesla has been approached for comment.

The Green to Grey project’s methodology differs from that of the European Environment Agency (EEA), which excludes developments smaller than 50,000 square metres – around five football pitches. By including smaller-scale losses, the investigation captures piecemeal urbanisation and localised encroachment into green spaces, resulting in estimates roughly 1.5 times higher than the EEA’s figures and exposing the cumulative impact of widespread minor developments.

“It’s a slow-burning issue,” said Jan-Erik Petersen of the EEA. “It just accumulates over time.”

The Green MEP Lena Schilling said: “For years, the EU has promised to lead on climate and nature protection, but what this investigation shows is that we are literally cementing over our own future.

“Every forest, fertile field and biodiversity hotspot destroyed for short-term profit is a betrayal of the promises we made to young people.”

Researchers warned that if Europe continues to treat nature as expendable, the continent risks not only losing its climate targets, but also its food security, public health and the very landscapes that make it liveable.

The analysis covered 30 countries, representing 96% of the EEA’s 39-country area. All nations studied showed ongoing losses of natural and agricultural land, though some were far more affected than others. The five countries with the highest losses were Turkey (over 1,800 sq km), Poland (more than 1,000 sq km), France (950 sq km), Germany (720 sq km) and the UK (604 sq km).

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At Natural World Fund, we are passionate about restoring habitats in the UK to halt the decline in our wildlife.