Nature protection

Biodiversity — the rich variety of life on Earth — is under threat, mainly because of unsustainable human activity. The EU hosts a wide range of animal and plant species and a variety of natural habitats. According to the European Environment Agency, most protected species in Europe have a poor or bad conservation status. Protecting nature is important for several reasons:

it is crucial for the survival of species and their habitats;
it is essential for human wellbeing because:
- our societies and economies rely upon ecosystem services, such as clean water and air, pollination, climate regulation and sources of nutrition or medicines,
- well-functioning ecosystems prevent the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases (infectious diseases which can spread from animals to people);
it is vital to protect our shared natural heritage.

The EU has played and continues to play an important role at international level in nature protection and conservation. It is party to several conventions including:

the Convention on the Conservation of Wetlands, adopted in Ramsar (1971);
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES, adopted in Washington (1973);
the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, adopted in Bonn (1979);
the Convention on the Protection of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, adopted in Bern (1982);
the Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted in Rio de Janeiro (1992).

The EU is also bound by the Aarhus Convention (1998), which concerns public access to environmental information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice.

The EU has committed itself to protecting and restoring biodiversity. The EU’s first legislation to protect nature was the original Birds Directive, adopted in 1979 and codified and replaced, in 2009, by Directive 2009/147/EC. The Directive provides comprehensive protection to all wild bird species naturally occurring in the EU. In 1992, the Habitats Directive (Directive 92/43/EEC) was adopted to help maintain biodiversity by protecting over 1,000 animal and plant species and over 200 types of habitats, and introducing the Natura 2000 network of protected areas across Europe. The Natura 2000 network’s Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas currently (2021) account for around 18% of EU’s land and 9% of EU seas.

The EU’s nature-related legislation also deals with:

invasive alien species (animals and plants introduced accidentally or deliberately into a natural environment where they are not normally present, with serious negative consequences for their new environment);
wildlife trade (rules implementing CITES, which go beyond the convention’s requirements, trade in seal products, and humane trapping standards);
the role of zoos in the conservation of biodiversity.

Since the mid-2000s, the EU has adopted a series of biodiversity action plans and strategies. The latest one, the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy, aims to protect nature and reverse the degradation of ecosystems. The strategy aims to put Europe’s biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030, and contains over 100 specific actions and commitments. It is the proposal for the EU’s contribution to the international negotiations on the global post-2020 biodiversity framework. A core part of the European Green Deal, it will also support a green recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.