Hereunder a sample of press coverages, EBCD received last semester for its activities:
PRESS RELEASE SHARED ON FEBRUARY 20, 2009 in the Institue for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), written by Sonja Gantioler.
' EU ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY BRIEFING: Conference on the European Biodiversity Action Plan and Post-2010 Visions' available at the link:
http://www.ieep.eu/publications/pdfs/eu_policy/ag_fish_nat_20_feb_09_bap.pdf
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ARTICLE PUBLISHED ON FEBRUARY 11, 2009 in the PARLIAMENT.COM, written by Martin Banks.
'MEP CALLS FOR THE FRESH ACTION TO TACKLE BIODIVERSITY DECLINE
A parliamentary intergroup was today re-launched in a bid to boost efforts to halt "disastrous” biodiversity decline. Speaking at a news conference, UK centre-right MEP Struan Stevenson said that EU targets aimed at curbing biodiversity loss by the year 2010 were unlikely to be met.
He said, “What is needed in a new set of more realistic targets which are actually achievable. We need serious targets to stop biodiversity and species loss.”
Stevenson chairs parliament's sustainable development intergroup, which was set up 15 years ago and is now the assembly's biggest intergroup with 120 members.
But he announced that this will be renamed the ‘climate change and biodiversity' group in an effort to “re-energise” EU efforts to address the issue.
Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems and refers to the many millions of distinct biological species, which is the product of nearly 3.5 billion years of evolution.
Stevenson, who has chaired the group for the past five years, said, “The challenge and urgency for a new biodiversity target is at least as high as defining the post Kyoto climate target. "We simply have to do more to halt the potentially disastrous biodiversity decline."
He said that for the next legislature, the group will focus on climate and biodiversity, adding, “Climate change and its impact on biodiversity deserve policymakers' maximum attention.
“To ensure that we keep these issues high on the agenda of current MEPs and those elected in June, we are relaunching the intergroup.”
He went on, "If compared to efforts for biodiversity at a global scale, the EU is not doing enough. Most of the countries that ratified biodiversity-related conventions have developed national action plans while in Europe several countries still do not have such strategies in place."
Alongside the re-launch, parliament was on Wednesday hosting a debate on the current state of the EU's biodiversity action plan.
The event included a range of experts representing government, business and NGOs.'
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ARTICLE PUBLISHED ON JANUARY 27, 2009 in the Belgian Biodiversity Plateform at www..biodiversity.be
The European Commission has just released the mid-term report on the Biodiversity Action Plan. The report provides the first comprehensive tool to asses how the EU is performing in reaching the 2010 target. Countdown 2010 will organize a high-level roundtable on 11 February to discuss the resultsof the report. This analysis will no doubt also provide the basis for informing the post 2010 biodiversity regime. This event took place in / at Brussels from 11/02/2009 to 11/02/2009
Backed by an unprecedented level of stakeholder consensus, the EU endorsed, in June 2006, an EC Communication: Halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010 – and beyond, which includes an ambitious Biodiversity Action Plan ( BAP ). The Biodiversity Action Plan identifies four main policy areas and sets out 10 key objectives for halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010. These are, in turn, translated into over 150 individual priority actions and supporting measures which are to be implemented against specific time-bound targets at both EU Member State and EC level. The Action Plan represents an important new approach for EU biodiversity policy as it addresses all the relevant economic sectors and policy areas in a single strategy document and apportions a share of the responsibility in its implementation. It recognizes that change will only happen if there is a concerted effort from all sectors of society and Member States to help deliver the overall target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010.
The European Parliament will comment on this progress report in early 2009 and this conference is targeted to inform this debate. It will address questions such as:
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To which degree will we achieve the 2010 biodiversity target?
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Where did we progress, where do we lack results?
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Will our common natural heritage be saved by 2010?
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Is there a need for a new target and if yes what should this target look like?
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