European Habitats Forum (EHF) Briefing to the Environment Council on the Biodiversity Communication

European Habitats Forum (EHF) briefing to the Environment Council on the Biodiversity Communication The European Community’s Biodiversity Strategy was adopted in 1998. In 2001, the Heads of State of the EU committed themselves to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010. In 2003, a review of the Strategy was initiated by the European Commission, which ended with the adoption of the Communication “Halting the loss of Biodiversity by 2010 – and beyond” in June 2006. The Communication includes an annexed Action Plan with detailed steps that urgently need to be undertaken to achieve the 2010 target. The European Council and Parliament should now adopt the Communication. The European Habitats Forum (EHF) is a platform of European non- governmental organisations working on the implementation of the EU’s nature Directives. The EHF welcomes this Communication, which is a strong and long-awaited wake-up call to European Institutions, EU Member States, stakeholders and all European citizens. It outlines the seriousness of the decline of species, habitats and ecosystems and stresses the negative implications for nature and people arising from this. It seeks to instead reverse this trend and protect the EU’s natural heritage as the basis of sustainable development, socio-economic activities and high quality of life for EU citizens. The European Habitats Forum invites the Environment Council: • To stress the importance of the EU Birds and Habitats Directives in achieving the 2010 target of halting biodiversity loss and the timetable for their full implementation. The review of the Biodiversity Strategy clearly showed that most of the successes can be directly linked to the Directives, as the only legal tools to directly enforce biodiversity conservation across the EU. We agree with the focus given to urgently completing the Natura 2000 network, and also to looking beyond site designation to increasing efforts to secure their long term management and protection, and the need for land use planning to take the Directives into account. • To commit to adequate financing for biodiversity conservation from the relevant EU funds. This is essential if the EU wants to take its 2010 commitment seriously. We especially agree with the approach taken by the Commission to push for integration of Natura 2000 financing into various EU funds (Structural Funds, Rural Development Funds, European Fisheries Fund), but strongly believe that the continuation of an independent funding stream for biodiversity, i.e.. LIFE+ is also essential. In 2008 – 2009 the EU budget will be reviewed which should be welcomed as an opportunity to assess how Natura 2000 has been financed, propose adjustments, and where necessary improve the mainstreaming of environment in the EU’s budget, particularly in the context of the CAP reform. • To welcome the focus on addressing EU’s contribution to global biodiversity loss with integration of biodiversity into trade and development cooperation policy. It is important to highlight the inclusion of actions for the overseas territories and regions as well as the commitment to developing a nature Directives-type approach for the EU outermost regions not already covered by the Directives, given that these biodiversity- rich regions have never been singled out for EU action before. We believe that much more needs to be done regarding integration into trade and development policy and the Communication represents a good starting point. • To highlight the special importance of actions in the face of climate change, including action on reducing emissions, supporting biodiversity adaptation to climate change and ensuring that climate change adaptation or mitigation measures deliver biodiversity benefits. • To welcome the action to develop an EU Strategy on Invasive Alien Species. • To support the proposal to develop a biodiversity index as a Sustainable Development and Structural indicator and to point out that such an indicator is already available in the Common Bird Index developed by BirdLife International. • To support the proposal to establish an EU mechanism for independent, authoritative research-based advice to inform implementation and further policy development, as we believe it is important to strengthen the link and interaction between decision making, policy development and science. We only have four years to go until 2010 and urgently need buy-in and input not only from the environmental sector, but also from other DGs of the Commission, from Member State governments, and from stakeholders of other sectors. Some concerns of the EHF in this respect are: • Buy-in from the civil society and all key stakeholders, such as industry and the agricultural sector is crucial to its implementation. We are concerned that the Commission might not have achieved tangible commitments yet from other sectors to fully implement the Communication and needs to make progress in building partnerships with other sectors. • We welcome the focus on reporting and evaluation and support the involvement of the Council and Parliament in this. We believe that the reporting should involve all relevant Council formations and Parliamentary Committees (not just Environment). • Another concern is that there are insufficient mechanisms in place within the European Commission itself for regular communication between and integration of relevant other DG’s on biodiversity policy (in particular DGs AGRI, FISH, TRADE, RESEARCH, REGIO, TREN, DEV and BUDGET). • We agree with the Commission that one tool to halt biodiversity loss by 2010 is to integrate environmental costs (including loss of natural capital and ecosystem services) into decision–making but are concerned there is no proposed mechanism in place to cooperate with other DG’s and Member States on this particular issue. The EHF therefore invites the Environment Council to: • Closely follow how the Biodiversity Communication, and in particular the attached action plan, is implemented • Ensure that the timescale is met, as this is key to its successful implementation • Urge the European Commission to review the success of EU financing of actions for biodiversity, (including Natura 2000) within the 2008/2009 budget review • Urge the European Commission to use the 2008/2009 budget review as an opportunity to identify how to better integrate the objectives of the Communication into other policies, in particular the CAP • Ask the European Commission to provide clear guidance and a strategy for how it will set up proposed partnerships with key stakeholders in the relevant sectors • Commit to actively participate in the regular reporting and evaluation envisaged for the Communication • Urge DG Environment to have regular communication with all the other relevant DGs and Member States concerning the full and timely implementation of the Communication by the European Commission For further information please contact: Arjan Berkhuysen, EHF Chair Stichting Natuur en Milieu, Postbus 1578, Donkerstraat 17, 3511 KB Utrecht NL Tel: +31 (0) 30 234 8218 Email: [email protected] Zoltan Waliczky, EHF Vice Chair RSPB, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2DL, UK Tel: +44 1767 680 551 Email: [email protected] Janice Weatherley, EHF Secretariat IUCN, Boulevard Louis Schmidt 64, 1040, Brussels, Belgium Tel : + 32 2739 3003 Email: [email protected] .

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