Only a small proportion of species and habitat types protected under EU law have 'good' conservation status, a European Commission report shows, urging member states to strengthen their efforts to protect biodiversity. Meanwhile, NGOs are pointing the finger at the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the current state of affairs.
The EU executive described the report
Grasslands, wetlands and coastal habitats are the most threatened, the report reveals. While coastal habitats are under increasing strain from tourism, wetlands are being converted to other uses and are suffering the effects of climate change.
The conservation status of grasslands, mainly associated with traditional agriculture, along with other agricultural habitat types fared "significantly worse" than other habitats. 76% of agricultural habitats were given an 'unfavourable' conservation status (of which 54% were given 'bad') compared to 60% (of which 30% 'bad') of habitats not associated with agriculture.
Only 7% of farm-related habitats were described as 'favourable' compared to 21% for non-agricultural habitats. According to the Commission, this is "mainly due to the decline of traditional patterns of agriculture," the shift towards more intensive agriculture, land abandonment and poor land management.
Poor reporting
While the Commission hailed national reporting as "a great success", the status of some 13% of regional habitats and 27% regional species remains 'unknown'. Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Portugal reported that over 50% of the species recorded in their territories are of 'unknown' status.
Assessing the marine environment proved to be particularly tricky, with 57% of the marine species assessments and about 40% of the marine habitats assessments classified by the EU executive as 'unknown'.
Environmental NGO WWF stressed that "you cannot protect what you do not know," urging the Commission to take effective sanctions against "massive under-reporting," delays and misreporting at national level.
CAP to blame?
According to environmental NGOs, the report shows that decades of intensive agriculture and effectively unregulated fisheries are responsible for the critical state of Europe's natural resources.
Ariel Brunner, agriculture policy officer at BirdLife International, regretted that despite recent major reforms, the CAP is still failing to support so-called "high natural value" traditional farming, instead primarily subsidising intensive cereal farming and livestock factories. "We need to get more farmers to adopt sustainable farming models," he said.
He further stressed that the post-2013 CAP reform needs to link the system of direct payments to public goods. Even the most intensive farms can benefit from a little more biodiversity, as squeezing the land only leads to soil erosion and depletion of groundwater, jeopardising overall food security, Brunner argued.
Debate over rewarding farmers for the public goods they deliver (landscape, pollination, biodiversity) is set to figure in negotiations on the future CAP (EurActiv 03/06/09).
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