The polar bear, the tiger, the gorilla, the elephant, the lynx, the jaguar, the wolf, the bee, the black grouse… We often hear about these endangered species, their images appealing to us for help. As well as these ad hoc celebrities, we can put a total figure of around 1 million on the number of living species, including countless insects, that are doomed to extinction because of human activities and climate change. This dramatic impoverishment of biodiversity is not only scandalous in itself, but it also damages the ecosystems in every corner of the earth, on land and in the oceans, a little bit more every day.
The concern for preserving nature is not new – it dates back to at least the 19th century – but the awareness of the need to study and improve the biosphere, amid the damage caused by widespread industrialisation, really came to the fore in the 1960s. UNESCO would launch its Man and the Biosphere Programme in 1971. The following year, the Club of Rome called the sanctity of economic growth into question. A series of international conventions were adopted, on conservation of wetlands, the protection of wildlife, the preservation of certain marine areas, etc. In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) held in Rio de Janeiro – known colloquially as the ‘Earth Summit’ – adopted a Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Agenda 21 and a declaration on forestry principles. Two protocols were later added to the CBD: on biosecurity (Carthage, 2000) and on genetic resources (Nagoya, 2010).
A Convention secretariat was set in place to follow up the commitments made. In 2010, which was dubbed the “International Year of Biodiversity”, there was no getting away from the fact that the objectives laid down had not been met. A new strategic plan was adopted for the decade now ending. Based on the model of the IPCC, a body providing a bridge between politics and science was set up in 2012: the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), based in Bonn and working under the aegis of the United Nations. Its first global assessment report on the situation, based on around 15,000 studies, was published on 6 May 2019.
Its findings are alarming. At the rate things are going, the current period will be the sixth mass extinction in the history of life on earth, with one in eight species in immediate danger of being lost forever. Humanity is directly affected, as it too depends on the health of the ecosystems, which are going downhill faster than ever. The destruction of nature generates new diseases. The reports produced by non-government organisations (such as WWF, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Seas at Risk, Birdlife etc...) all agree. The fifth UN conference (COP 15) on global biodiversity, to be attended by the Parties to the CBD, is soon to be held in Kunming (China): European Union may have a role to play here, possibly a very important one.
It was with a view to this – in addition to the objective requirements of the situation in Europe – that the European Commission on 20 May adopted its highly anticipated Communication: ‘EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2020. Bringing nature back into our lives’ (COM(2010) 380 final) (see EUROPE 12491/2). The document is proactive and perfectly adequate, but there is absolutely no basis for the ‘inaugural’ nature some have ascribed to it.
The Europe of the Communities was not unaware of biosphere issues, as evinced by a directive agreed upon as early as 1979, on the conservation of wild birds. Furthermore, the Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora was adopted the month before the Earth Summit of 1992. Both directives have since been modified: the former, also known as the ‘Birds’ directive, in 2009; the latter, referred to as the ‘Habitats’ directive, in 1997. A European nature preservation network, Natura 2000, came into being in 1992, the same year as the implementation of the first LIFE programme, the fifth phase of which is drawing to a close. From 1986 onwards, there were four regulations seeking to protect the forests of the EU from pollution and fires and to develop a common information system on monitoring them.
1997 also saw the adoption of the EU Regulation aiming to control the exploitation and trade of species of wild animals and plants, in application of the UN Convention. Implementing regulations agreed by the Commission added to the raft of legislation.
An overall framework was required. The first action plan in favour of biodiversity saw the light of day in 2006. The ‘Barroso II’ Commission upped the ante in May 2011, with an ‘EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020’, a document that is impossible to read today without a wry smile (see EUROPE 10370/23).
What was the overall priority objective? Nothing less than ‘halting the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, and restoring them in so far as feasible, while stepping up the EU contribution to averting global diversity loss’. Achieving this goal would require the ‘full implementation of the Birds and Habitats Directives’ (applying that they were not already implemented), putting forward ambitious targets, completing the work on the Natura 2000 network (in 2012 !), improving its funding and management. At least 15% of degraded ecosystems were to be restored by 2020. There were more specific measures targeting agriculture, forestry and fishing. A legislative instrument was announced for 2012 to fight invasive alien species destroying European biodiversity (a regulation was adopted in 2014). (To be continued).
Renaud Denuit