The European Parliament has approved the Nature Restoration Law by a margin of 54 votes.
Under the law, member states will have two years to plan how they will restore 20% of the EU's land and sea areas by 2030 and all ecosystems by 2050.
The NRL has to be rubber-stamped by the EU's environment ministers next month, but today's vote is seen as the final hurdle it faced.
According to the European Commission, over 80% of Europe's natural habitats are in poor health.
There are exemptions for member states along with an emergency brake facility, whereby the targets for agricultural ecosystems can be temporarily suspended under exceptional circumstances.
Even if the NRL had been defeated, the Irish Government had committed to pressing ahead with nature restoration plans.
Minister of State with Responsibility for Nature Malcolm Noonan has said that the National Biodiversity Plan already sets out ambitious targets.
Regarding criticism from some around an absence of funding for restoration plans, Minister Noonan said funding will be decided upon over the coming two years.
The Climate and Nature Fund announced in last year's budget, worth €3.15bn, must also be legislated for and a portion of this will be used for biodiversity.
The onus now falls on member states to devise plans to implement the NRL over the next two years.
Minister Noonan has committed to holding a public consultation as part of that.
His party colleague, Ciarán Cuffe MEP, has said the Nature Restoration Law is about "bringing nature back to Europe so we can secure livelihoods, food production, and economies into the future".
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Reacting to the vote, President of the Irish Farmers' Association Francie Gorman said despite changes to the NRL, the "law is still flawed".
"Even though legitimate farmer concerns have not been adequately addressed, the EU has pushed ahead with the introduction of the NRL. This will not reassure farmers about the impact of the NRL."
Mr Gorman said farmers are doing more to support nature than "any other sector of society".
"12-14% of the space on our farms is 'space for nature’. While there have been some important changes to the Commission version of the NRL, the law is still flawed," he added.
Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice said the EU had "put no funding" in place for the NRL.
Speaking to RTÉ's Drivetime, he said: "This is a day where an EU rule, aided and abetted by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and Green MEPs from Ireland barely got over the line I think it is 51% or 52% and it shows that right around Europe there is a lot of discontent about this law."
Mr Fitzmaurice said that it was not about protecting family farms and said families would be driven off their farms because they would not be able to survive.
In the Dáil, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore criticised Sinn Féin MEP Chris McManus and Independent MEP Luke Ming Flanagan for voting against the Nature Restoration Law in the European Parliament.
Fellow Independent TD Mattie McGrath said the law would "devastate" rural Ireland.
