Biodiversity loss "as serious as climate change"

The threat to humanity and the planet posed by biodiversity loss is as great as the dangers presented by climate change, EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas claimed on Tuesday.  Mr Dimas was opening the European commission's annual Green Week event in Brussels, which this year is devoted to biological diversity. 

"Stopping the loss of biodiversity and limiting climate change are the two most important challenges facing the planet," he said.  "In one fundamental way biodiversity loss is an even more serious threat, because the degradation of ecosystems often reaches a point of no return - and because extinction is forever."

Biodiversity loss is also a "major drain on our economies", the commissioner continued.  Depleted fish stocks, declining soil fertility, the collapse of pollinator species, the damage done by invasive species and the loss of potentially valuable genetic resources all reduce economic well-being, he said.

The week of conferences and events follows last week's commission action plan to achieve an EU target to halt biodiversity loss by 2010 (EED 22/05/06 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/21021).  Mr Dimas said the plan focussed on implementing existing EU legislation such as that underpinning the Natura 2000 network rather than creating new policy.  The legislation itself will not be revised until after 2010, he said.

In a new report released on Monday the European environment agency (EEA) set out a mixed but generally gloomy picture of the EU's chances of meeting the 2010 target in various habitat types. 

For farmland, progress is "not apparent" and the target is "unlikely to be reached without additional integrated policy efforts".  In forests, meanwhile, there are "clear signs of progress in reducing threats to and enhancing biological diversity".

In freshwaters there has been a "marked improvement" in water quality but the 2010 target will not be reached without restoring riverine habitats.  The loss of biodiversity in seas and coasts is "considerable and shows little sign of being reduced".  The loss of wetlands continues, and there is "little evidence" of progress in reducing threats to mountain areas.

Achim Steiner, head of the International nature conservation union (IUCN), called for an end to the "parallel tracks" along which global biodiversity and economic agreements such as the world trade organisation are discussed separately.  "The way we conduct negotiations is condemning biodiversity to a very sad fate.  That's the simple story of the tragedy of our international system today." 

Speaking days before taking up the role of executive director of the United Nations environment programme, Mr Steiner said it was a "mystery that we still struggle with the concept of supporting nature when we're richer than we've ever been."

Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic and leader of the anti-communist movement that formed in part to protest against ecological destruction wreaked by economic mismanagement, appealed for "greater humility before the mysteries of nature".

* In a report released last week, the UK environment ministry said that climate change itself posed an "immediate challenge" to the EU's 2010 target.  "There is already strong scientific evidence of the impact on wild plants and animals in Europe. During the twenty-first century rapidly shifting climate zones and rising sea levels will put increasing pressure on species already under threat for other reasons," it said.

Follow-up: European Commission http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm, tel: +32 2 299 1111,

plus Green Week http://ec.europa.eu/environment/greenweek/home.html,

Dimas speech http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/06/333,

press release http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/680 and

EEA report http://reports.eea.europa.eu/eea_report_2006_5/en. 

See also UK environment ministry press release http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2006/060524a.htm and report

http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/resprog/findings/climatechange-biodiversity/index.htm.

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