Parallel break-out session: Biodiversity

Three parallel breakout sessions will provide the opportunity to explore in greater depth the three policy areas discussed in the morning plenary session. Each session will be invited to consider to what extent the SDGs and the Paris climate deal can be used to leverage progress. Each session should aim to produce a short set of commonly agreed recommendations, as well as to identify areas where there are different opinions, and to report back to the plenary.

This session will focus on issues such as better enforcement and implementation of the EU Nature Directives, the scaling up of financing for Natura 2000 management and restoration, and ways to tackle the main drivers of biodiversity loss, Particular attention will be paid to the role of agriculture and the challenge to develop a future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2020 that will stop farming being the main driver of biodiversity loss and would justify the spending of taxpayers’ money.  It will debate the concrete steps that the EU now needs to take to implement better nature protection in these areas. The panel and participants will also have an opportunity to react to and discuss the main outcomes of the EEB’s Biodiversity Conference which will have taken place mid-September in Brussels. In that conference, NGO proposals for measures relating to the issues will have been presented and discussed with policy-makers.

This break-out session will address the following questions:

• How to achieve Europe’s biodiversity goals, following the Fitness Check of Natura 2000 and the Mid Term Review of the EU biodiversity strategy?
• Everybody wants better implementation and enforcement, but how to make it happen on the ground? What role for new technologies?
• How to roll out a Europe-wide ambitious restoration agenda?
• How can we ensure that farming becomes part of the solution to conservation and safeguarding biodiversity?

Moderator: Pieter de Pous, EEB EU Policy Director

Rapporteur: Luc Bas, Director of IUCN European Union Representative Office

Speakers:

Wolfgang Suske, Head of the office, Suske Consulting

Irene Lucius, Regional Conservation Director, WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme

Mohammad Abdel-Razek, Project Manager, GRAS – Global Risk Assessment Services

Joined by the Biodiversity plenary speaker Andreas Beckmann, Managing Director of the WWF-International Danube-Carpathian Programe

LINKS TO FURTHER READING ABOUT BIODIVERSITY

EC (2010) EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, URL: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52011DC0244

EC (2015) Mid-term review of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, URL: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52015DC0478&from=EN

EC (2015) The State of Nature in the EU, URL: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/pdf/state_of_nature_en.pdf

Milieu, IEEP and ICF (2016) Evaluation Study to support the Fitness Check of the Birds and Habitats Directives, URL: https://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/study_evaluation_to_support_fitness_check_of_nature_directives__final.pdf

EEB (2015) Europe’s Nature Laws Matter – For Biodiversity, People and the Economy, URL: https://www.eeb.org/?LinkServID=0643049D-5056-B741-DB4B138047DF834A&showMeta=0&aa

BirdLife (2015) From Nature Alert to Action, URL: https://www.birdlife.org/sites/default/files/attachments/from_nature_alert_to_action.pdf

BirdLife, EEB & WWF (2015) Make Space for Nature – Policy Action to protect Nature and People in Europe, URL: https://www.birdlife.org/sites/default/files/attachments/01-16_WEB_RGB_100_MIDDLE.pdf

BirdLife, EEB, FoEE, WWF (2016) Nature Legislation – Fit for purpose and in need of Action, URL: https://www.eeb.org/?LinkServID=E1A65B87-5056-B741-DBECD3E2AF84DAD3&showMeta=0&aa

EEB Actions for Nature Conference Programme, URL: https://www.eeb.org/?LinkServID=93D3C019-5056-B741-DBA759E47DF2F5A2&showMeta=0&aa

EEB and Birdlife (2016) UNCAP the Truth – Spotlight on EU farm policy, URL: https://www.eeb.org/?LinkServID=1E175283-5056-B741-DBD31547016B14CC&showMeta=0&aa