The EU’s rescue plan

Date: 24/05/06

A new EU biodiversity strategy hopes to show Europe that by 2011 the idea of endangered plants and animals could be a thing of the past.

Worrying about wildlife is a traditional environmental concern but it seemed to have slipped down the political agenda in recent years, making way for fears over global warming and chemical pollution.

The central problem of getting widespread public support for measures to halt biodiversity loss is that our quality of life in the west has soared exactly as, and generally because, people have used up natural resources.

The opening of the strategy explains: "Over recent decades, humanity has benefited enormously from development, which has enriched our lives. However, much of this development has been associated with a decline in both the variety and extent of natural systems - of biodiversity."

Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas hopes to prove that the environment side of the equation is at least as important as the development.

The revised biodiversity strategy - an action plan and communication - published by the European Commission on International Biodiversity Day on Monday (22 May) sets out the best way to hit an EU target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010.

The target already looked ambitious when it was agreed at the turn of the century. With four years to go it risked seeming deluded. The Commission aims to show that it can be met, without playing down the challenges on the way.

The action plan is split into ten "priority objectives", which are divided into 158 actions.

The Commission also for the first time formally sets out a timetable for action once 2010 has passed. For most issues, including endangered species and the marine environment, the Commission sets a new target of seeing "substantial recovery" by 2013.

And after years of basing assessments of environmental health on organised bird-watching, the Commission is also promoting other biodiversity "indicators". Butterflies, water birds and carnivores are all being discussed.

Although the biodiversity strategy may not get as much media attention as the idea of a common EU energy policy, it is arguably just as challenging.

This is despite the fact that the action plan contains very few new ideas and instead asks governments to obey and implement already existing EU environmental laws.

Environmental legislation is one of the legal areas where member states struggle, with dozens of infringement challenges from both the Commission and the European Court of Justice every year. Some of the most difficult laws, such as the wild birds and habitats directives, are here listed as priorities.

A "substantial improvement in compliance with environmental regulations" is also called for "by 2010 and again by 2013".

When the strategy steps back from environmental regulation it is only to face other equally challenging issues.

The Common Agricultural Policy, EU enlargement, development aid, the Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs, and international trade policy already raise hackles across the EU and beyond. The strategy highlights the need to remember biodiversity in these sectors if the 2010 target is to be met.

On a more familiar note, it says that the EU needs a better understanding of the links between climate change and biodiversity, adding that "care must also be taken to prevent, minimise and offset any potential damages to biodiversity arising from climate change adaptation and mitigation measures".

In case biodiversity does not get enough attention from the launch of the strategy, Brussels will once again give the subject centre stage later this month, at the Commission's environmental Green Week (30 May-2 June).

Following last year's climate change-themed Green Week, this time Commission staff, politicians and lobbyists meet to talk about the birds and the trees.

Environmentalists are hoping they will bring emergency survival kits. Because, for biodiversity, time is running out.

The European Commission on 22 May 2006 - International Biodiversity Day - published its revised biodiversity strategy - an action plan and communication setting out the best way to hit an EU target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010.
Article is part of a European Voice Special Report, 'Biodiversity'.

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG Environment: Policies: Nature and Biodiversity http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/index_en.htm

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