EU launches Biodiversity Strategy for 2030
In May 2020, the European Union released its new Biodiversity Strategy, to address the biodiversity crisis both within and beyond the territories of member states. The new strategy involves:
– Protecting and effectively managing at least 30% of Europe’s land and sea
– Improving the conservation status or trend of at least 30% of EU protected habitats and species that currently have a non-favourable status
– Planting at least 3 billion trees, following ecological principles – a Forest Strategy will be proposed in 2021
– Managing at least 25% of agricultural land under organic farming
– Eliminating bycatch of protected species
– Enabling transformational change, such as with: a Biodiversity Knowledge Centre and Biodiversity Partnership to support biodiversity research; stimulating tax systems to reflect real environmental costs; integrating biodiversity into public and business decision-making
– Advocating for global protection of biodiversity, and preventing displacement of environmental degradation outside of the EU
The Biodiversity Strategy is in line with the European Green Deal, and is coupled with the Farm to Fork Strategy for fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food systems. Europe has established itself as a leader in the preparations for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, which will be formalised at the Convention on Biodiversity COP15 in May 2021.
The NbSI join IUCN in calling for the EU to define more concrete actions of how the strategy will be implemented. Nature-based solutions play a central role in the new strategy, and the NbS community must work with EU policymakers and practitioners to help ensure that NbS are planned and implemented in a successful, sustainable manner.
Read the press release here and Q&A here.
