Aimed at putting Europe’s biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030, the European commission has adopted the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. They also adopted a comprehensive, ambitious and long-term action plan for protecting nature and reversing the degradation of ecosystems.
“Making nature healthy again is key to our physical and mental wellbeing and is an ally in the fight against climate change and disease outbreaks. It is at the heart of our growth strategy, the European Green Deal, and is part of a European recovery that gives more back to the planet than it takes away,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said.
The Commission said that COVID19 pandemic has increased the urgency to protect and restore nature. The pandemic is raising awareness of the links between health and health of ecosystems. Stating that Biodiversity was crucial for safeguarding EU and global food security, it said that the loss of biodiversity threatened the food systems.
Main elements of the Strategy for 2030
- Establishing protected areas for at least 30 per cent of the land and 30 per cent of sea. Mapping, monitoring and protecting all the EU’s remaining primary and old-growth forests.
- Restore degraded ecosystems at land and sea across by increasing organic farming and biodiversity-rich landscape featureson agricultural land, restoring at least 25 000 km of EU rivers to a free-flowing state, halting and reversing the decline of pollinators, planting 3 billion trees by 2030 and reducing the use and risk of pesticides by 50% by 2030
- Unlock 20 billion Euros per year for biodiversity through various sources such as EU funds and national and private funding.
