Protecting biodiversity in EU OEs
30 July 2010. IUCN attaches special importance to the conservation of biodiversity in overseas territories.
In 2008, IUCN together with the French government and the Regional Council of the Island of La Reunion convened the first conference on EU Overseas Entities. The Conference brought together governments, the European Commission, experts, and civil society to develop a plan of action to address biodiversity loss and the impacts of climate change. The Message of La Reunion proposed a series of concrete actions to protect OEs’ biodiversity, their economies and way of life.
In May 2010, the IUCN Regional Office for Pan-Europe launched its EU Overseas Entities Programme with the support of the French government. The objectives of the IUCN EU OEs Programme are to raise awareness of EU OEs biodiversity and climate change issues with the European Union and the international community to facilitate their integration into policies and programmes, to actively promote collaboration in those regions where OEs are located, and to build the capacity of OEs in biodiversity conservation and adaptation to climate change.
Activities planned for the next couple of years are to establish an OEs multi stakeholder working group to facilitate information exchange, dialogue, coordination and input into EU policies and programmes; undertake strategic reviews to inform EU policies and programmes; as well as technical diagnostic studies to document the status of biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation, identify capacity needs, information gaps and proposed solutions in partnership with regional actors.
Early results include the publication of the Climate change and biodiversity in the European Union overseas entities and the review of the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in the EU OEs which will be presented at the CBD Conference of the Parties (COP) in Nagoya, Japan on 18-29 October 2010.
For more information, visit the Programme website or contact Dominique Benzaken, Coordinator, European Union Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories at dominique.benzaken@iucn.org.
