Posted
on 13 July 2009 - Tree frog (Hyla arborea)
on flowering rush. A new European Commission
report shows that 65 percent of European
habitats and more than half its remaining
species are under threat.
“Our neglect of the
health of our natural systems is setting
ourselves up for the negative economic effects
of an environment less diverse and thus
less resilient to climate change,” said
Andreas Baumüller, Biodiversity Policy
Officer at WWF’s European Policy Office.
The first assessment
of the outcomes of the EU Habitats Directive,
originally adopted 17 years ago, shows that
with 65 percent of habitats and 52 percent
of species considered in bad or unfavourable
conservation status, Europe will miss its
commitment to halt biodiversity loss by
2010.
The analysis published
by the European Commission shows that over
the last decade the European Union has reduced
its direct investments in nature protection
to a tiny 0,1 percent of the EU budget.
“Each European citizen
pays every year about 300 euro to the European
Union, but just 30 cents are used to safeguard
our natural heritage,” Baumüller said.
“The bad status of our environment is just
the inevitable consequence of decades of
wrong political decisions.”
The report shows that
decades of intensive agriculture and effectively
unregulated fisheries have put European
natural resources in a critical status.
In areas dependant on agriculture, almost
80 percent of habitats are in trouble and
almost 90 percent of commercial fish stocks
are overfished, with a third at risk of
being beyond recovery.
WWF highlights that
the assessment is likely optimistic, with
massive under-reporting by some States on
the conservation status of threatened habitats
and wildlife.
“Despite the legal obligation
to gather information and take appropriate
measures for the protection of the environment,
in countries like Spain the status of nearly
two thirds of habitats is still unknown.
And no data are provided about the conservation
status of around half the threatened species
in Greece, Cyprus or Portugal.” said Baumüller.
“You cannot protect
what you do not know - delays and misreporting
at national levels need to be subject to
effective sanctions if we want to guarantee
a healthy and economically viable environment
for our future generations.”
WWF praised the initiative
introduced in 2001, when Heads of States
made a commitment to “halt the decline of
biodiversity by 2010”.
The key result was the
creation of the Natura 2000 network of protected
areas that now includes 17 percent of European
territory and is to be extended to cover
marine areas.
“Essentially however,
our politicians still don’t understand that
it is not a matter of protecting a bunch
of rare plants and animals from extinction,”
Baumüller said. “Nature guarantees
a healthy and functioning environment for
our life and that of all other living species.”
WWF is calling on the
European Union to maintain an ambitious
target of halting biodiversity loss by 2020,
urging European governments to set up a
real “European Recovery Plan for Biodiversity”
in order to increase “eco friendly” investments,
protect and manage Natura 2000 terrestrial
and marine sites, develop renewables and
green infrastructures and introduce farming
and fishing practices that do not harm our
ecosystems.
