EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030
EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030
The EU’s biodiversity strategy for 2030 is a comprehensive, ambitious and long-term plan to protect nature and reverse the degradation of ecosystems. The strategy aims to put Europe's biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030, and contains specific actions and commitments. This strategy is a key pillar of the European Green Deal and of EU leadership on international action for global public goods and sustainable development goals.
The European Commission presented this new strategy in May 2020 following calls from the Parliament in January 2020 to address the main drivers of biodiversity loss and to set legally binding targets.
At the June 2021 plenary session, the Parliament adopted its position on the "EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 : bringing nature back into our lives" with 515 votes to 90 with 86 abstentions. MEPs strongly deplored the EU's failure to meet its 2020 biodiversity targets, and said the new strategy must adequately address the five main pressures on biodiversity. They also stressed the importance of mobilizing €20 billion per year for biodiversity actions in Europe.
Objectives
The biodiversity strategy aims to put Europe’s biodiversity on the path to recovery by 2030 for the benefit of people, climate and the planet.
In the post-COVID-19 context, the strategy aims to build our societies’ resilience to future threats such as
- the impacts of climate change
- forest fires
- food insecurity
- disease outbreaks - including by protecting wildlife and fighting illegal wildlife trade
Actions
The strategy contains specific commitments and actions to be delivered by 2030.
- Establishing a larger EU-wide network of protected areas on land and at sea
The EU will enlarge existing Natura 2000 areas, with strict protection for areas of very high biodiversity and climate value.
- Launching an EU nature restoration plan
Through concrete commitments and actions, the plan is for EU countries to put in place effective restoration measures to restore degraded ecosystems, in particular those with the most potential to capture and store carbon and to prevent and reduce the impact of natural disasters.
As part of this plan, the Commission proposed the EU’s first ever Nature Restoration Law which includes an overarching restoration objective for the long-term recovery of nature in the EU’s land and sea areas, with binding restoration targets for specific habitats and species.
- Introducing measures to enable the necessary transformative change
The strategy highlights unlocking funding for biodiversity, and setting in motion a new, strengthened governance framework to
- ensure better implementation and track progress;
- improve knowledge, financing and investments;
- better respecting nature in public and business decision-making.
- Introducing measures to tackle the global biodiversity challenge
These measures will demonstrate that the EU is ready to lead by example to address the global biodiversity crisis. In particular, working towards the successful adoption of an ambitious global biodiversity framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Implementation
Two online tools track progress in implementing the strategy
- an online actions tracker provides up-to-date information on the state of implementation of the strategy’s many actions
- a targets dashboard shows progress to the quantified biodiversity targets set by the Strategy, at the EU level and in the Member States
