In 2001, the EU committed to halt biodiversity loss by 2010, but today it is clear that this objective is far from having been achieved. The United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB), in the frame of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). More than ever, big challenges in terms of biodiversity conservation must be taken up…

 

The European Commission is currently tabling policy options for a 2020 biodiversity target, Euractiv reported on Wednesday 20 January. These options have been presented in a communication of January 19th. This is the basis of the EU biodiversity strategy that the Commission is to present by the end of the year. This strategy will include a mid-term target towards reaching a “2050 vision”. This “vision” puts biodiversity preservation at the heart of an integrated approach, as it is closely interlinked with other issues such as food security, climate change, fisheries and tourism. Therefore biodiversity loss has very important economic repercussions. The European Commission acknowledges that “together with climate change, loss of biodiversity is the most critical global environmental threat and gives rise to substantial economic and welfare losses”.

In its communication of Tuesday 19 January, the European Commission identifies four options matching with different levels of ambitions in terms of biodiversity protection: the first one aims at “significantly reducing the rate of loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU by 2020”. The second option would be to “halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU by 2020”. The third option is the second one completed with the restoration of the biodiversity loss “insofar as possible”. The fourth option is logically the most ambitious: it is basically the third one plus the “EU’s contribution to averting global biodiversity loss”.

A conference on climate change and biodiversity was hosted by the Countdown 2010 and the UNRIC on Thursday 21 January to mark the International Year of Biodiversity. In his presentation, Olivier Deleuze, Director of the UNEP Liaison Office to the EU in Brussels said this Commission’s communication is “too prudent”, stressing the lack of funding to achieve ambitious goals when it comes to nature conservation. Sebastian Winkler, Head of the Countdown 2010 Secretariat and IUCN Senior European Policy Advisor, also pointed out that the EU must increase the direct financing allocated to biodiversity protection in the EU Budget review. According to him, the EU also needs to develop a clear baseline from which to measure progress, to set concrete priorities, to increase synergy between biodiversity protection and other “international processes” and to mainstream biodiversity in other political areas.