03/03/2006 - Brussels,
Belgium / Gland, Switzerland – European
Union funds are being used to build roads
and dams that are destroying the habitat
of the Iberian lynx, the world’s most endangered
cat species.
In Spain, the remaining Iberian lynx population
— with around 100 individuals left, including
just 25 breeding females — is under major
threat due to loss and fragmentation of
its habitat. New construction works will
hamper efforts to conserve the endangered
cat.
A new WWF report, Conflicting EU funds,
shows that despite the EU's commitment to
halt biodiversity loss by 2010, vast sums
of European Union money are being spent
on roads, dams and irrigation schemes which
threaten critically endangered species and
key habitats in Europe. In many cases, EU
funds are being used for activities that
are recognised as major threats by the EU
itself.
“Europe has to take responsibility for
its own species, but at present the European
Union is using its funds to both support
biodiversity and undermine it,” says Stefanie
Lang, Regional Policy Officer at WWF’s European
Policy Office. “This is an unacceptable
situation caused by wrong decisions at national
or regional level and poor coordination
between Member States and the European Commission.”
As the EU is shaping new funding regulations
for the period 2007–2013, the report presents
eight case studies where competing plans
funded by the EU are damaging biodiversity.
In Spain, EU funds are used for infrastructure,
such as 20 dams and 16 roads, including
the new highway Toledo-Ciudad Real-Puertollano-Cordoba,
that will have a detrimental impact on lynx
habitat protected under the Natura 2000
network.
Similarly, EU funds have been used to overexploit
bluefin tuna fisheries in the Mediterranean,
and to promote damaging agricultural subsidies
which have resulted in the mismanagement
of cork oak forests in Portugal.
In Greece, while the EU Commission Directorate
General (DG) responsible for the environment
is supporting a LIFE project to protect
brown bears, the DG Regional Development
is funding the planned Egnatia Highway,
which directly threatens these animals.
WWF urges the EU to withdraw funds that
conflict with biodiversity goals and EU
environmental legislation ,and says that
EU funds must include priority measures
to protect biodiversity and Natura 2000
sites. WWF also recommends that EU Member
States develop good national programmes
that contribute to the 2010 goal.
“If we are to halt the loss of biodiversity
and preserve the remaining natural heritage
of Europe, which is essential for long term
economic prosperity, the EU cannot afford
to continue funding the destruction of habitats
and environmentally damaging infrastructures
as it has in the past,” says Gerald Dick
of WWF’s Global Species Programme.
END NOTES:
• The eight case studies in the report
are: Agricultural Subsidies and Cork Oak
Ecosystems, Portugal; Threats to the Iberian
Lynx, Spain; Brown Bears and the Egnatia
Highway, Greece; Fisheries Funds and Tuna
Farming, the Mediterranean; Via Baltica
and Natura 2000, Poland; Navigation on the
Danube and Natura 2000; Odelouca Dam and
the Monichique Natura 2000 site, Portugal;
and Western Algarve
Biodiversity and Irrigation, Spain.
• In the coming months, EU Institutions
will decide on the European Fisheries Fund
(Fisheries Council in April), the LIFE+
regulation (Environment Council in March
and June) and the guidelines for Structural
Funds. The European Commission is expected
to publish in April a communication on biodiversity,
with a roadmap to halt biodiversity loss
in the EU by 2010.
• In 2004, the Structural and Cohesion
Funds accounted for 34% of the total EU
budget, while the LIFE-Nature budget accounted
for only 0,06%.
