Published: 06 May 2009
- Biodiversity loss and climate change are
now a part of our lives. Both are rooted
in overexploitation of natural resources.
Both require a coherent policy response.
The Syracuse Charter and the Athens Conference
underline the strong political commitment
to take action. To ensure our society and
economy have a healthy future, we need a
way to assess our impacts on the natural
world. The European Environment Agency's
European Ecosystem Assessment (EURECA) responds
to that need.
Last week was a turning
point for biodiversity policy discussions.
Two crucial meetings — the G8 environment
meeting in Syracuse, Italy, and the high-level
conference in Athens, Greece, organised
by the European Commission — recognised
the close links between climate change and
biodiversity loss and the fact that neither
can be solved without addressing the other.
An integrated approach, aimed at greening
our economy was called for.
'Syracuse and Athens confirm
that the political will to halt biodiversity
loss is now here. The solutions must be
embedded across the political sphere from
climate change to the economy. We need to
strengthen our knowledge of what biodiversity
means to us, and the services and benefits
we get from the natural world. The EEA will
fill some of today's gaps in knowledge with
EURECA', said Professor McGlade, Executive
Director of the EEA.
Ecosystems provide many
services to human society, including carbon
storage and climate regulation and water
flows. Tackling climate change means using
natural resources sustainably to maintain
ecosystem services. Numerous countries have
launched greening initiatives with this
in mind. And many governments responding
to the current financial crisis have put
greening the economy at the centre of their
stimulus packages.
What is EURECA?
The EEA launched the EURECA (European Ecosystem
Assessment) initiative to contribute to
the follow-up process of the UN Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment. EURECA will address
the stocks, flows and value of selected
ecosystem goods and services using a variety
of policy-relevant scenarios. The EEA will
deliver the first assessments in 2011, with
more following in subsequent years.
EURECA will give particular
attention to improving our knowledge of
how ecosystems function, the services they
provide, involving stakeholders and developing
tools for political decision-making in Europe.
It will provide a platform for people to
exchange knowledge and bring national assessments
together at a European level.
EURECA timeline
The first phase of EURECA was completed
at the end of 2008. There will be regular
updates of the EURECA findings throughout
2009–2013. The aim will be to support and
influence a range of important international
processes. Building on the SEBI (Streamlining
European Biodiversity Indicators) work assessing
the 2010 biodiversity target at Convention
of Biological Diversity COP10 and the setting
of new European targets, EURECA will contribute
to the follow-up to the global Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment and 'Rio +20' in 2012.
Specifically for the
EU, EURECA will contribute to the review
of the 6th Environment Action Programme
and progress reports on the implementation
of the EU Biodiversity Action Plan, together
with the SEBI indicators.
EURECA's long-term
perspective and flexible approach will allow
updates on the state of Europe's ecosystems
to be fed into the European Union's dynamic
policy agenda, which will face many new
challenges in the coming years, including
globalisation, climate change, migration,
security of natural resources and demographic
changes.
