Sleepwalking to extinction

The European Union has to learn lessons from its earlier failures to halt the loss of biodiversity.

The global economy may be limping out of recession, but the world’s natural resources are in a perilous state. A succession of reports published over the past decade has told a story of disappearing forests, seas polluted with plastic rubbish, and more plants and animals becoming extinct than at any other time in human history. Around two-thirds of the damage has happened in the past 50 years and the pace of destruction shows no sign of abating. The world’s coral reefs could be wiped out by rising ocean temperatures. Fish stocks are in a particular desperate state, with four-fifths of species over-exploited.

European nature is not immune from this destruction, despite fine talk and targets. A promise by European Union leaders to halt biodiversity loss by 2010 has been broken. Fewer than one in five protected species have a ‘good’ conservation status. A few success stories, such as the rescue of the wolf and the otter, have to be balanced against the unrelenting pressure on a majority. Some species, such as the Iberian lynx and the Mediterranean monk seal, face extinction.

The urgency of the problem ought of itself to generate calls for action.

In addition, this year will see particular efforts to protect nature. The United Nations has declared 2010 to be the ‘International Year of Biodiversity’ and hopes to raise public awareness of the problem. In October, representatives from about 150 countries will meet in Japan to try to agree a new global plan for biodiversity.

The EU will spend the coming weeks working out its strategy ahead of the global meeting. In March, environment ministers will discuss a new EU target on biodiversity to replace the failed 2010 target, which will then be endorsed by EU leaders at their spring summit. The European Commission has prepared a set of options for ministers to consider. The most ambitious is to halt biodiversity loss by 2020, repair the damage as much as possible and step up the EU’s contribution to averting global biodiversity loss. The least ambitious is simply to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2020, which would be a step backwards from the earlier missed target. In their first discussion of the target last week (3 February), national government officials rejected this easy option, although only a handful of countries (in north-western Europe) came out decisively in favour of the most ambitious target.

Setting targets is relatively easy. But politicians have to learn from their failures to meet the 2010 target. Threats to biodiversity are diffuse, actions are rarely prioritised and competing interests (economic growth, construction) are legion. As the European Environment Agency (EEA) has pointed out, biodiversity is a more complex problem than climate change. Whereas global warming is largely caused by a few easily identifiable polluting gases, the loss of biodiversity has numerous causes: pollution, urban sprawl, road-building, hunting, over-exploitation of natural resources and farming practices.

Political commitment

It has often seemed that the complexity of the problem is in inverse proportion to the political commitment that most governments have demonstrated in solving it. Although EU leaders put their names to the target in 2001, the commitment had little practical effect. The decision to ‘halt biodiversity loss’ did not translate into immediate changes to fisheries, agriculture or economic policy. Initially, most governments proved unenthusiastic stewards of their natural wealth. Member states dragged their feet in designating protected wildlife sites, as required by EU law, although the list of ‘Natura 2000’ sites on land is now close to completion.

Fact File

IMPORTANT DATES IN 2010

March: The environment ministers of the 27 EU states to agree conclusions on a new biodiversity targets (On 15 March this will be put to national government leaders for approval on 25-26 March). EU leaders will also hear the European Commission’s proposals on the EU 2020 strategy, aimed at creating a ‘smarter greener economy’ by the end of the decade.
June: European Commission and European Environment Agency to publish biodiversity baseline study.
October: Countries that have signed the Convention on Biological Diversity to meet in Nagoya, Japan, to agree a new global plan on biodiversity protection.
November: Report on ‘The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity’, commissioned by member states and the European Commission.

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European officials are considering how new biodiversity targets can be more rigorous. One answer is to make the target easier to measure. In June, the EEA and the Commission will publish a baseline of European biodiversity, to give a detailed picture of European nature. But the biggest challenge is likely to be mustering the political will to take difficult decisions.

After last year’s climate conference in Copenhagen, campaigners are not optimistic. Zoltán Waliczky at Birdlife Europe says: “The fiasco of Copenhagen was a very strong indicator that politicians are not really ready to tackle the tragedy of the commons.”

But campaign groups are intensifying their campaigns. Waliczky says: “2010 is the last chance to put together a rescue package to bring life on the planet back from the brink.”