Natura 2000 is mission possible

Press Release

Natura 2000 is mission possible

2nd February 2012

[Brussels, 2nd February 2012] - Putting Natura 2000, the ecological network that covers one fifth of Europe's land, under effective protection by 2016 is 'mission possible' if countries follow the lead of the forerunners. This was the conclusion of a report published today by green group EEB on the network started under the now 20 year old Habitats Directive.

"The report revealed that a large number of sites under the Natura 2000 network are still left completely unprotected. Although there has been good progress in a few countries, most have yet to start managing and protecting their areas seriously. If left unchallenged, this will leave significant parts of the Natura 2000 network without meaningful protection," said EEB's Sarolta Tripolszky.

A few countries, like Sweden and France, demonstrated that delivering quality protection in time is possible. Sweden developed management plans for more than 95% of its Natura 2000 sites.

While France only completed plans for half of its sites, the plans are consulted widely with site owners and other stakeholders and enabled good financing and monitoring. From the new member states, Poland is expected to catch up quickly as it put forward a timetable to develop plans for half of its sites until 2013.

Unfortunately, some member states, such as Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain, who all should have created and put the network under protection by 2000 have not managed to draw up plans for more than 5-15% of their sites.

"More and more evidence is emerging, that investing in Natura 2000 and biodiversity can deliver a powerful contribution to job creation, enhancing growth and achieving climate and biodiversity objectives. However this won't be possible without the effective contribution of the EU Budget to developing management plans and carrying out the necessary management actions," Jeremy Wates, EEB Secretary General added.

"European decision makers should therefore ensure a fair contribution from the CAP, CFP and Regional Funds to implementing Natura 2000. EEB is especially asking for a five-time increase of the EU's environment Fund (LIFE), which currently accounts for 0.2% of the EU Budget," added Wates.

Read the report (includes a two page summary) here.

Contact:

Sarolta Tripolszky, EEB Biodiversity Policy Officer, sarolta.tripolszky@eeb.org, +32 (0) 2 289 10 93.

Notes

The European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety has, on the 19th December 2011 published a motion for a EP resolution on the new EU Biodiversity Strategy in which they "Calls on the Member States to set 2015 as the deadline for the development of management plans or equivalent instruments for all Natura 2000 sites;"

Source: http://bit.ly/y19dcQ