Additional Challenges
> 10 October 07
Beyond the seven target areas for which the pan-European countries made specific commitments in the Kyiv Resolution on Biodiversity, several challenges have emerged in recent years which will prove crucial to achieving the 2010 target and to biodiversity conservation in the medium-to-long term.
Climate Change and Biodiversity
Climate change is already having a significant impact on biodiversity. For example, analyses of data on over 1700 species show that climate change has already altered range boundaries and phenology. The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report foresees continuing and increasingly serious impacts on biodiversity. These impacts will diminish the areal extent of some ecosystems and disrupt many ecosystem properties and services globally, with the result that beyond 2050 climate change is very likely to be the major driver for biodiversity loss globally. Particularly vulnerable ecosystems include tundra, boreal forest, salt marshes, and mountain and Mediterranean-type ecosystems. In addition, climate-change mitigation measures pose certain risks to biodiversity, such as through wind turbines, hydro schemes, tidal barrages and biofuel production. The EC is launching an overview of the current information on habitats and species in the EU which are most at risk.
To the extent that climate change cannot be mitigated, the challenge for biodiversity conservation is to take adaptation measures to limit these impacts. The main goal of these measures should be to strengthen the resilience of ecosystems to stress and disturbance. Ecosystem resilience is not only important for biodiversity protection alone: maintaining healthy functioning ecosystems is a precondition for limiting the impacts of climate change on all sectors. Resilience can be improved by ensuring the full implementation of the protective and management measures which have already been agreed under Natura 2000, the Pan-European Ecological Network, the Bern Convention and the Water Framework Directive, and by improving the coherence and connectivity of ecosystems through measures such as flyways, buffer zones, corridors and stepping stones.
Marine Ecosystems
European seas and coastal zones represent a unique and important part of global biodiversity. However, the loss of biodiversity in all marine areas in Europe is continuing at a high rate. The main causes are: overexploitation (38 fish stocks out of 43 are over-fished); land-based pollution which leads to eutrophication, particularly in the Baltic, Black and Mediterranean Seas (the world’s largest habitat of a red algae species in the Black Sea has shrunk by 70% as a consequence); industry, including the oil industry, trade and transport, tourism and infrastructure development (area covered by asphalt and concrete in the coastal zones has increased by 10% since 1990); and the spread of invasive alien species. The only positive processes that can be observed are an improvement in the abiotic condition in the Black Sea, a slight increase in the number of marine areas designated as Natura 2000 sites, and the recent launch of new marine environment policies.
Efforts to halt and reverse this general decline must be strengthened, primarily by controlling coastal development, by conserving all remaining coastal areas of high biodiversity value, by reduce land-based pollution, by expanding the number of marine sites in Natura 2000 and including marine and coastal areas in the Pan-European Ecological Network, and by fully implementing the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy.
Territorial Development
Territorial development is causing increasing impacts on biodiversity across the pan-European region. The most vulnerable areas are coastal zones, mountains and islands, although virtually all ecosystems are affected. Although various measures are having some effect in controlling the impacts of territorial development (such as PEBLDS, the European Landscape Convention, Natura 2000, the EU Water Framework Directive and the Alpine and Carpathian convention) they are in mat cases of limited effectiveness when faced with the enormous public and private investments being made in transport infrastructure and economic development. Moreover, full implementation of these instruments has yet to be secured.
As an evaluation of the new EU structural funds programmes for 2007–2013 is ongoing, it is too early to determine to what extent sufficient funds have been allocated to Natura 2000 and broader biodiversity objectives. The EC is launching a study on the application of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive in 2007, which will consider biodiversity. The current focus of the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Structural Funds for 2007–2013 is on the development of experience in its application. A study on the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive is being prepared with a view to report on its application.
Sectoral Integration
The integration of biodiversity conservation objectives into other sectoral policies and their full implementation is key to halt biodiversity loss in Europe by 2010. This has been recognised by virtually all European biodiversity commitments in recent years. For example, the Malahide Message called for biodiversity concerns to be fully recognised in the conception and implementation of community legislation and instruments in both environment and other sectors, particularly with a view to achieve the 2010 target.
Signs of progress can be observed in some countries and certain sectors (such as forestry and agriculture). However, it is at present very difficult to demonstrate significant progress in the integration of biodiversity into other sectoral policies, especially in relation to the conservation and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the wider countryside and marine environments, and also in reinforcing the compatibility of regional and territorial development with biodiversity. As these are key objectives in the EC’s 2010 Communication, it will be essential to further examine ways in which this can be attained.
Administrative support and governance
In recent years an alarming trend has become evident in most of the EU Member States in terms of diminishing financial and human resources dedicated to biodiversity conservation, even within the environment sector. This is coupled with the great reduction and sometimes complete disappearance of state funding for environmental NGOs active in the field of biodiversity conservation. These trends, coupled with the lack of progress in sectoral integration, mean that there is inadequate and a constantly declining capacity to conserve biodiversity in the face of mounting challenges. Environment ministers are invited to do everything within their capacity to reverse this trend and to strengthen the resource and capacity base needed for biodiversity conservation in their respective countries.
About this page
This document is part of the Countdown 2010 Readiness Assessment 2007. Download the entire study in English or Russian or read the chapters online.
Pan-European Progress Towards Achieving the 2010 Biodiversity Target
Introduction
Forests and Biodiversity
Agriculture and Biodiversity
The Pan-European Ecological Network
Invasive Alien Species
Financing Biodiversity
Biodiversity Monitoring and Indicators
Public Participation and Awareness
Additional Challenges
Annex 1: Status and trends of 2010 indicators
Annex 2: C2010 Readiness Assessment Questionnaire
Annex 3: Online Survey on the 2010 Biodiversity Target
Annex 4: Recommendations for high nature value farmland
Annex 5: SEBI2010 Indicators
