No halt to biodiversity loss

Abstract

In 2001, European leaders signed up as contracting parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, joining 130 world leaders in pledging support for an ambitious endeavour to halt biodiversity loss by 2010. A Biodiversity Action Plan to achieve this goal was embarked upon in May 2006. Earler this year, an assessment was published of the progress achieved half-way through the implementation of the action plan. It is a damning indictment of the European Commission's general failure to stem the extermination of rare species and habitats within its borders. In particular, the assessment report reveals that 50 per cent of all species and up to 80 per cent of habitat types deemed by the EU to be "of conservation interest" in Europe now have "unfavourable conservation" status. The same goes for over 40 per cent of European bird species. Silver linings included success of extending the Natura 2000 network, as well as strides forward in the protection of endangered large mammal species and the conservation of the marine environment, including the adoption of the Marine Strategy Directive. The combined Natura 2000 network now comprises more than 25,000 sites, covering around 17 per cent of the European Union's total land area.