Protecting Biodiversity in the EU: The failures of the Biodiversity Strategy 2020 and what we can learn for the future

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By Guy Downing, Léna Prouchet and Pia Reimann

The Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 was ambitious on paper, but its implementation was largely insufficient because of a lack of capacity, resources and political will. To ensure that the new Strategy to Biodiversity fulfils its goals, efforts to align policies affecting biodiversity in the EU, support for radical changes across sectors and strong governance mechanisms will be necessary.

The Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, developed by the European Commission following the Biodiversity COP 2010 – an international agreement concerning 196 parties globally, which establishes a consensus to protect biodiversity – was an ambitious and impressive strategy. Although it ultimately fell short of its goals, the Strategy marked a significant opportunity for international action. 

The main target of the Strategy was to halt the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020. It was aimed at protecting and restoring biodiversity in order to meet present and future human needs. This was an ambitious goal and involved 20 Aichi Targets concerning a wide range of factors relevant to protecting biodiversity, in recognition that the continuous degradation of ecosystems represent a severe threat to the well-being of humans and the environment.

Some progress has been made (most notably regarding Target 5 through the introduction of a regulation that combats invasive alien species, and Aichi Target 11 relating to the conservation of marine and terrestrial territory). In general, the importance of biodiversity and the consequences of its decline have been integrated into other sectors. Unfortunately, this does not happen at a sufficient level, evident from many other targets that were set in the strategy.

In fact, the implementation of the Biodiversity strategy 2020 has been reviewed as largely insufficient. The mid-term review published by the Commission showed  that the majority of the targets had either no significant progress at all or that they were at an insufficient rate. It was noted that not only are many of the threats to ecosystems in the EU persisting, but many have increased across ecosystem structure (such as climate and habitat change). The reasons for these failures are multifaceted, as noted by the Institute for Biodiversity Network (IBN); the overall failures of the Strategic Plan and Aichi targets are “not rooted in the Plan itself but in strong forces and power relations that exist independently of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)”. This is true to the point that the goals were well-intentioned and adequately ambitious, and there has been a gap between the CBD’s ambition and the political will of governments, stakeholder involvement, and synergies at national and international levels.

The issues are not totally external however, it has become clear that the capacity and resources were not present to meet the targets from the beginning. For example, the financial estimates needed to significantly influence the targets were not made available (the estimates being a comparatively reasonable amount between $74-120 Billion). Furthermore, the progress has been criticised to not have addressed the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss, such as aiming to influence international consumption and production practices shown to be systemically negatively impacting our ecosystems. Many of these issues are to be expected from multilateral environmental agreements such as the CBD.

However, this lack of political accountability cannot be understated as an issue going forward to 2030, given the significant issues pressing our planet and its environment. It is clear that the issues highlighted need to be deeply considered going forward.

As illustrated above, the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 allowed bringing biodiversity at the forefront of the European climate action agenda, although it met highly contrasted results. The new Biodiversity Strategy published by the Commission last year and aiming to “bring nature back into our lives” is a unique opportunity to, at last, implement a bold framework for biodiversity protection across the EU and worldwide.

This strategy is part of a set of new policies designed by the Commission under the umbrella of the EU Green Deal, which also includes the Farm-to-Fork strategy. Additionally, the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) could be one of the key tools to ensure biodiversity preservation within the EU. This will only be accomplished if policy coherence is ensured: Member States will need to align their national CAP plans with the goals of the new Biodiversity Strategy.

Besides, to achieve the ambitious objectives set by the Commission, radical changes across sectors are needed. Notably, production and buying patterns within the EU will be required to shift dramatically, through, for instance, an increase of organic products consumption and a decrease of meat and dairy intakes. Significant resources should be allocated to enable these adjustments, including economic support to promote agro-ecological practices. In parallel, current subsidies which have an evidenced negative impact on biodiversity will have to be phased out. This will be especially important to maximise the impact of the €20 billion the Strategy commits to investing annually for nature protection and restoration.

Regarding restoration programs, the goal to plant “three billion new trees in the EU” by 2030 was encouraging, however it was highlighted that such initiatives should be adapted to local contexts. In fact, massive tree planting schemes can have detrimental social and environmental effects if they are not designed properly.

Strong governance mechanisms will be necessary to ensure the implementation of this bold programme. Civil society organisations, and especially youth organisations, have a key role to play in that regard. These stakeholders are acting as effective watchdogs and are the source of innovation propositions for nature protection. They should therefore be empowered by EU institutions, through the provision of funding and deepening of initiatives such as the EU Climate Pact.

After one year of being proposed, the actions of the Strategy which have been achieved mainly deal with knowledge sharing or guidance publications. More ambitious items on the agenda, especially regarding ecosystem restoration, are still at their initial stage.

The efforts made by the Commission to guarantee the funding of the strategy are encouraging. Therefore, there is hope that the next years will see the implementation of the ambitious targets set by the Commission alongside strong monitoring mechanisms. A real positive step was achieved on 28 May 2021 where the ENVI Committee voted on a series of amendments that guide policy action to match the urgency of the biodiversity crisis. Moreover, on the 9 June 2021, during a plenary vote, the Members of the European Parliament recognised the failure of the previous Strategy. Additionally, they requested a “Paris agreement” for biodiversity during COP15 in October and April 2021 in Kunming, China, acknowledging that biodiversity preservation is an international issue.

These considerations aim to recognise the full opportunity of biodiversity and ecosystem protection within the EU over the coming years, and it is important the 2030 Strategy meets and goes beyond its targets in such a crucial time.