EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 - Bringing nature back into our lives
Updated on 24.06.2024
The Strategy aims to protect nature and reverse biodiversity degradation in the EU by 2030. It addresses the five main drivers of biodiversity loss: changes in land and sea use, overexploitation, climate change, pollution, and invasive alien species.The strategy establishes an enhanced governance framework to address remaining gaps, ensures full implementation of EU legislation, and unifies all existing efforts.
Key objectives and (or) targets related to cities & regions
The strategy outlines necessary actions for reversing biodiversity degradation, including establishing larger protected areas (expanding Natura 2000 areas), launching nature restoration plans, introducing measures enabling transformative change, and addressing the global biodiversity challenge. Achieving these actions depends on partnerships between local, regional, national, and European levels.
Three overall targets for the EU territory strategy are:
- At least 30% of land and 30% of the sea should be protected;
- 10% of land and 10% of sea should be strictly protected;
- All remaining primary and old-growth forests should be strictly protected.
These targets can be further broken down into bio-geographical regions distributed across all Member States, achieved in collaboration with regional organizations. EU criteria guidance will assist in identifying areas in need of stricter protection, and area-based conservation measures and city greening will contribute to achieving these targets. The Commission commits to supporting Member States, local, and regional authorities with technical guidance, funding assistance, and capacity building.
On the urban level, the Urban Greening Platform is established under the new ‘Green City Accord’ (a movement of European mayors committed to making cities cleaner and healthier, with five focus areas). Under the EU forest strategy, 3 billion trees will be planted in the EU by 2030, particularly beneficial in cities. As part of this strategy, European cities with at least 20,000 inhabitants need to develop ambitious Urban Greening Plans by the end of 2021. These plans include measures to create biodiverse and accessible urban forests, parks, and gardens; urban farms; green roofs and walls; tree-lined streets; urban meadows; and urban hedges. They should also improve connections between green spaces, eliminate the use of pesticides, limit excessive mowing of urban green spaces, and address other biodiversity-harmful practices. Such plans could mobilise policy, regulatory, and financial tools.
Examples of how it was adopted/transposed by Member States
There are two online tools tracking the implementation of this strategy: the Actions tracker (https://dopa.jrc.ec.europa.eu/kcbd/actions-tracker/) and the Targets dashboard (https://dopa.jrc.ec.europa.eu/kcbd/dashboard/). These tools provide information on the implementation of actions and progress on the biodiversity targets.
Germany has pledged to increase its international biodiversity finance to 1.5 billion euros per year by 2025. You can read more about this pledge here: https://www.bmuv.de/en/pressrelease/a-strong-partner-in-global-nature-conservation-germany-to-increase-international-biodiversity-finance-to-15-billion-euros-per-year-by-2025.
Furthermore, Germany will update its 2008 National Strategy for Biodiversity in line with the EU Strategy. More information can be found here: https://www.bmuv.de/themen/naturschutz-artenvielfalt/naturschutz-biologische-vielfalt/allgemeines-/-strategien/nationale-strategie-zur-biologischen-vielfalt#:~:text=Die%20neue%20Nationale%20Strategie%20zur,Verlust%20der%20Biodiversit%C3%A4t%20effektiv%20adressieren.
e.g. commercial, residential, service, industrial
