Europe "losing biodiversity in protected areas"

2632, 09/10/08

European nature conservation sites are failing to protect vulnerable species and habitats, the European environment agency (EEA) has warned.  Less than half of species and habitats protected under EU and national schemes are safe, it says.

The EEA was presenting a first analysis of 2007 data reported by EU member states under the habitats directive at a biodiversity conference organised by international nature protection group IUCN in Spain this week.  The IUCN released its latest species "red list", which shows that 16,928 species are now threatened with extinction globally.

The European agency said a significant number of EU protected species and habitats were under threat.  In many cases, there was not sufficient data for a clear assessment of the situation.  The data confirms a previous EEA assessment showing that wetlands, dunes and grasslands are among the less well-preserved habitats (EED 29/11/05 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=19921).

The findings show that nature conservation policies have a limited impact.  Creating more protected sites will not address the problem since biodiversity is deteriorating is existing ones, EEA says.  The agency calls for greater focus on site management.  It will make policy recommendations next year.

Earlier this year, the UN warned the world's species were disappearing at unprecedented rates.  It called for "exceptional efforts" by governments to achieve an internationally-agreed goal to significantly reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 (EED 19/05/08 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=25443). 

Follow-up: EEA http://eea.eu.int/, tel: +45 33 36 71 00, a press release

http://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/europe-is-losing-biodiversity-2013-even-in-protected-areas

plus IUCN conference http://www.iucn.org/news_events/index.cfm?uNewsID=1683 and red list

http://iucn.org/about/work/programmes/species/red_list/review/index.cfm.

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