Download an EU biodiversity strategy to 2020

Our life insurance, our natural capital:
an EU biodiversity strategy to 2020
Claudia Olazábal
Deputy Head of Unit
Biodiversity Unit
DG Environment
European Commission
Greens/EFA Conference- Seeds for a sustainable future
THE PROBLEM
 Decline in species and habitats degradation have led to an
significant decline in the genetic diversity of life on Earth.
 Since beginning of agriculture, the world’s farmers have
developed roughly 10 000 plant species for use in food and
fodder production.
 Today, only 150 crops feed most of the world’s population
 Only 12 crops provide 80 % of dietary energy from plants,
with rice, wheat, maize and potato providing 60 %
 About 3/4 of the genetic diversity found in agricultural crops
have been lost over the past century
 in China: local rice varieties being cultivated has declined
from 46,000 in the 1950s to slightly more than 1,000 in 2006
 General homogenization of landscapes and agricultural
varieties make rural populations vulnerable to future changes,
if genetic traits kept over thousands of years are allowed to
disappear.
THE PROBLEM
 Significant progress on ex situ conservation of crops the collection of seeds from different genetic varieties for
cataloguing and storage for possible future use
 There are some 1 750 individual gene banks worldwide
 For some 200 to 300 crops, over 70% of genetic
diversity is already conserved in gene banks
EXAMPLES OF EX-SITU CONSERVATION
 Among the most ambitious programmes: Millennium
Seed Bank Partnership, which now includes nearly 2
billion seeds from 30,000 wild plant species, mainly
from drylands;
 Svalbard Global Seed Vault, in Norway, close to the
Arctic Circle, to provide the ultimate safety net against
accidental loss of agricultural diversity in traditional
gene banks. The vault has capacity to conserve 4.5
million crop seed samples
Figure 1. Geographic
distribution of gene
banks with holdings of
>10 000 accessions in
national and regional
gene banks (blue);
CGIAR centre gene banks
(beige); Svalbard Global
Seed Vault (green)
THE PROBLEM
 However, in addition to ex-situ conservation, major
efforts are still needed to conserve genetic diversity on
farms (for adaptation to climate change and other
challenges)
 The FAO recognises the leading role played by plant and
animal breeders in conservation and sustainable use of
genetic resources
RATIONALE FOR ACTION
 Environmental
 Political
 Economic
EU MANDATE
March 2010 European Spring Council endorsed:
A 2050 VISION
European Union biodiversity and the ecosystem services
it provides – its natural capital – are protected, valued and
appropriately restored for biodiversity’s intrinsic value
and for their essential contribution to human wellbeing
and economic prosperity, and so that catastrophic
changes caused by the loss of biodiversity are avoided.
A 2020 HEADLINE TARGET
Halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in
the EU and restore them insofar as feasible, and step up
the EU's contribution to averting global biodiversity loss
GLOBAL MANDATE
CBD COP 10 (Nagoya, October 2010):
 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020
- 2050 vision
- 2020 mission: Take effective and urgent action to
halt the loss of biodiversity…
- 20 “Aichi Targets”
20 AICHI TARGETS
 Strategy for Resource Mobilisation
- Finance target(s) expected to be adopted at
COP-11 in Delhi, 2012
 Nagoya Protocol on Access and BenefitSharing (ABS)
AICHI TARGETS
Target 13: By 2020, the genetic diversity
of cultivated plants and farmed and
domesticated animals and of wild relatives,
including other socio-economically as well
as culturally valuable species, is
maintained, and strategies have been
developed and implemented for
minimizing genetic erosion and
safeguarding their genetic diversity
STRUCTURE OF THE STRATEGY
2050 Vision
2020 headline target
Halt biodiversity loss – restore ecosystem services – global contribution
6 Targets:
Enhance
implementation
of nature
legislation
Restore
ecosystems
est. Green
Infrastructure
Sustainable
Agriculture
&
Forestry
Sustainable
Fisheries
Combat
Alien Invasive
Species
ANNEX OF ACTIONS
Contribute to
averting global
biodiversity
loss
3A. Sustainable Agriculture
By 2020, maximise areas under agriculture across
grasslands, arable land and permanent crops that are
covered by biodiversity-related measures under the CAP
so as to ensure the conservation of biodiversity and to
bring about a measurable improvement(*) in the
conservation status of species and habitats that depend
on or are affected by agriculture and in the provision of
ecosystem services as compared to the EU2010
Baseline, thus contributing to enhance sustainable
management.
(*) Improvement is to be measured against the
quantified enhancement targets for the conservation
status of species and habitats of EU interest in Target 1
and the restoration of degraded ecosystems under
target 2.
3A. Sustainable Agriculture
Actions:
Action 10: Conserve Europe’s agricultural genetic
diversity
The Commission and Member States will
encourage the uptake of agri environmental
measures to support genetic diversity in
agriculture and explore the scope for
developing a strategy for the conservation of
genetic diversity
ONGOING INITIATIVES
 Revision of the EU Regime for seed marketing- led by DG
SANCO
 Community Programmes for the Conservation of genetic
resources in agriculture – led by DG AGRICULTURE
 LIFE PROJECTS
Thanks for your attention
Bise http://biodiversity.europa.eu