Nature protection and biodiversity - Outlook 2020 (Luxembourg)

While no clear picture concerning medium-term trends beyond 2010 is emerging, it is expected that biodiversity will be influenced both positively and negatively. On the positive side, it is expected that the implementation of past, current and future conservation measures and programmes will only begin to bear tangible results in the years to come, because of inherent time lags between implementation and biodiversity responses. More generally, biodiversity and nature conservation have gained in importance politically, both at national and local level, leading to more informed decisions and greater consideration of biodiversity related issues. On the negative side, the current financial and economic crisis and its medium-term consequences may hinder the above mentioned emergence of biodiversity on the political radar. Furthermore, stochastic events as well as climate change are likely to trigger irreversible changes in population dynamics of already fragile species and species assemblages as well as ecosystem services, due to an ever decreasing resilience of natural systems.