EEB

Biodiversity

Biodiversity Protection after 2010

• What is the EU doing?
• What is the EEB doing?
• Monitoring quality of implementation and infringements
• Biodiversity Protection after 2010

Developing a new policy package should start with asking why the EU failed to reach its target. Assessments from the European Commission and the European Environment Agency had already concluded by 2009 that the EU was likely to miss it.

Even though it was missed, the target has played an important role in focusing political attention and action. However, the Biodiversity Action Plan finalised in 2006 (five years after the target was agreed) was only as effective as the different sectoral policies which already existed. These were often poorly implemented or turned out to be less effective than anticipated.

Perhaps most critically, the BAP lacked an understanding of the socio-economic drivers behind biodiversity loss and therefore could not respond to these well enough. These drivers were the most fundamental barriers to reaching the 2010 target, so they will need to be addressed more directly to achieve a 2020 target.

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