Drivers for biodiveristy loss
Population growth combined with unsustainable production and consumption patterns continues to cause environmental degradation. The over-exploitation of natural resources (eg overfishing, unsustainable land-use) and the effects of climate change increase the pressure on species and ecosystems. The development of infrastructures, uncontrolled urban sprawl, intensive agriculture and forestry practices, as well as tourism, are all fragmenting and/or encroaching on habitats and ecosystems.
The decline in biodiversity in EU countries continues at a steady pace, despite the adoption of a number of potentially powerful Directives, such as the Birds Directive, the Habitats Directive with its provision to establish the "Natura 2000" network, and the EU's biodiversity strategy and biodiversity action plans which aim to integrate biodiversity objectives into sectoral policies. Implementing these Directives has been difficult and biodiversity concerns have still not been adequately integrated into sectoral policies.
Policy background
At the European Council meeting in Gothenburg in 2001, the EU set itself the ambitious goal of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010. This target is also included in the EU’s Sixth Environmental Action Plan and was reinforced by the Kiev Ministerial Conference at a pan-European level in May 2003.
Implementing the 1979 Birds Directive and the 1992 Habitats Directive, two key Directives to preserve Europe’s natural environment, has been difficult. The Natura 2000 network currently covers approximately 18% of Europe’s territory. As the process of establishing the Natura 2000 network enters its final stages in most Member States, attention is increasingly focusing on how to set conservation objectives, which conservation measures to take including management plans and how to finance it all. This is now particularly relevant in the ten new Member States. These countries still harbour important populations of wildlife such as wolf, lynx and bison, and rare habitats, such as primeval and riparian forests, which have virtually disappeared in large parts of Europe. The outstanding biodiversity of Central and East European countries is under serious pressure now that the new Member States are adopting EU policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy and have become eligible for Structural and Cohesion Funds. It is imperative that we draw on the experiences of the older Member States and ensure that policies do not damage the natural environment in the newer EU countries. But it is not just in the new states that much needs to be done. Many older EU members still have much that needs to be conserved.
The Commission launched a review of the EU’s biodiversity policy in 2003 to assess the progress at EU and Member State level in the implementation of the EC Biodiversity Strategy (see 1998 Commission Communication on a Community Biodiversity Strategy) and Action Plans. In May 2004 a biodiversity conference was organised in Malahide where stakeholders discussed and agreed on a blueprint for a 2010 Delivery plan, called the "Message from Malahide". A Communication from the Commission now scheduled for November 2005 which will draw on the message from Malahide and which is expected to make recommendations for concrete measures, timeframes and resources.
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