Brussels, 02/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - It is in the area of agriculture that the EU biodiversity strategy has been found most wanting over the course of the first five years of implementation, according to a report on the mid-term assessment of the strategy by the NGO BirdLife Europe, published on Tuesday 2 June.
The report, Halfway there?, was timed to coincide with the launch of European Green Week, which is dedicated this year to biodiversity (Brussels, 3-5 June).
It notes that, despite some progress, the EU has failed to reverse the decline of biodiversity and numerous plant and animal species are threatened with extinction in the EU. Recent reports by the European Commission and the EEA on the state of nature in the EU have delivered similar findings (see EUROPE 11318).
The BirdLife Europe report finds that progress has been made: - on implementation of EU nature legislation (target 1 of the strategy) and that progress had been spectacular when and where the habitats and birds directives had been properly implemented; - in fisheries (target 4) and on tackling alien invasive species (target 5), thanks to sound EU legislation.
However, BirdLife argues, not much has been done on restoring ecosystems (target 2). Progress has been limited on international biodiversity loss (target 6), and failure was total on target 3, agriculture. The report documents the substantial failure of the EU in addressing the ecological crisis in EU farmland. More than half of farmland birds have been lost since 1980 and grasslands are disappearing at an alarming rate in a number of member states, including Germany, Bulgaria and Slovenia. (Aminata Niang)