20 May: At a side event held during the ninth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, in Bonn, Germany, the European Commission presented its Natura 2000 network of conservation areas established to protect natural habitats.

Photo: L-R: Oliver Schweiger, Heimholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Astrid Kaemena, European Commission, Karin Zaunberger, European Commission.

Karin Zaunberger, European Commission (EC), presented existing policies within the EC, focusing on Natura 2000 and its importance to preserving biodiversity in the European Union (EU). She noted that Natura 2000 acknowledges that many human activities rely on land use. Astrid Kaemena, EC, outlined the funding programmes at the EC for research and noted that scientific excellence, research-policy interfaces, impacts and long-term availability of results were central to successful research proposals. Oliver Schweiger, Heimholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, highlighted the results and policy perspectives of three existing projects being funded by the EC, namely: Assessing Large-Scale Environmental Risks with Tested Methods (ALARM); Understanding Effects of Land Use Changes on Ecosystems to Halt Loss of Biodiversity due to Habitat Destruction; Fragmentation and Degradation (COCONUT); and Minimization of and Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity (MACIS).
Discussions focussed on how to extend Natura 2000 to other sites in Europe; its contribution to mitigation and adaptation for climate change; how to make Natura 2000 less static; the need to increase public awareness for biodiversity efforts, with particular attention to Natura 2000; and the specifics and timeframes of the outputs of the MACIS project.
[EC Biodiversity and Climate Change http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/climatechange/]
[ENB on the Side http://enb.iisd.org/biodiv/cop9/enbots/]