Biodiversity and Nature. EU committed to halting biodiversity loss in Europe and significantly reducing the rate of loss worldwide

A contraction of biological diversity, biodiversity reflects the number, variety and variability of living organisms, including mankind. The world is faced with an unprecedented loss of biodiversity, which threatens to undermine environmental, economic and social goals. The framework for worldwide action is the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992. However, the international agenda is also driven by the European Union, which has been legislating and taking action since the 1970s to safeguard biodiversity. At the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, at Johannesburg in 2002, governments committed themselves to significantly reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. The EU has set itself the objective of halting the loss of biodiversity on its own territory by 2010.