In 2010 the European Union missed its target to halt biodiversity decline because of weak implementation of legislation, lack of funding and a systemic failure to reform sectoral policies such as agriculture and fisheries.
Recognising the urgency and importance of safeguarding our ecosystems, the EU has adopted a new 2020 headline target:
Halting the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, and restoring them in so far as feasible, while stepping up the EU contribution to averting global biodiversity loss.
The 2020 headline target is accompanied by a 2050 vision; both do not only refer to halting biodiversity loss, but also to the role of ecosystems and the need to restore them. The EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy includes six targets that reflect the main drivers of biodiversity loss that can be linked to EU policy.
In its report On the Road to Recovery? two years after the adoption of the 2020 target and of the EU’s global commitments in Nagoya/Japan, the European BirdLife Partnership undertakes a first stocktaking exercise of progress made ‘on the road to’ the 2020 target and intends to repeat this assessment at regular intervals until 2020.
Full report in pdf: On the Road to Recovery
English version: Executive Summary in pdf: On the Road to Recovery
Version française: Synthèse de l’évaluation en format PDF: L’Europe sur la Bonne Voie
Deutsche Fassung: als PDF-Datei: Auf dem Weg der Besserung? Fortschritte und Hindernisse bei der Umsetzung der EU-2020- Strategie für die biologische Vielfalt – Periode 2010 bis 2012
Components of the assessment of progress:
1. On the Road to Recovery? reviews EU-level policy progress and on-going implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 across Member States under its six targets and proposes Milestones for 2014 (see summary of the assessment):
European Rollers
Credits: Tomaz Wilk
1. Fully implement the Birds and Habitats Directives
2. Maintain and restore ecosystems and their services
3. Increase the contribution of agriculture and forestry to maintaining and enhancing biodiversity
4. Ensure the sustainable use of fisheries resources
5. Help combat Invasive Alien Species
6. Help avert global biodiversity loss
2. The first milestone in the progress towards 2020 is to achieve adequate investment in biodiversity. Consequently we also assessed whether or not the current negotiations on the 2014-2020 EU budget are promising enough to finally reform environmentally harmful subsidies and channel the needed investments in biodiversity conservation.
3. Each one of the EU Member States has also been looked at individually to detect areas where they are showing leadership or lagging behind.
This report was produced in close cooperation with the BirdLife Partners in Europe.
BirdLife Europe is a Partnership of 45 national conservation organisations and the world leader in bird conservation.
This and future assessments, together with expected new data on the state of EU biodiversity, should feed into the planned review of the strategy in 2014. If significant gaps are then identified, the Strategy should be ambitiously re-oriented, for instance by including additional actions, in order to put the EU back on track towards its 2020 target.
Contact us:
Stichting BirdLife Europe
Avennue de la Toison d’Or, 67
B – 1060 Brussels - Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 280 38 02
Fax: +32 (0)2 230 38 02
E-mail: europe@birdlife.org
Supported by RSPB, UK.
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