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What is a bee to you? Or a mushroom that grows in parts of Finland? Do you consider yourself an apple connoisseur? A new series of biodiversity stories developed by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and its Eionet partners can help us rediscover our connection with the natural world around us and understand why we urgently need to halt the loss of biodiversity.
The present report analyses options for scaling up existing estimates of ecosystem service values to larger geographical scales. It also presents a case study of wetlands at the European level and discusses the results and policy applications.
At the opening session of the Green Week conference in Brussels, the European Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA) unveiled two new tools to combat biodiversity loss: BISE (the Biodiversity Information System for Europe) and 'Biodiversity baseline'. BISE is a web portal centralising information about European biodiversity in a single location. The baseline offers a comprehensive snapshot of the current state of biodiversity and will be used to monitor progress in the renewed efforts to halt biodiversity loss.
Invasive alien species (IAS) have become a major driver of biodiversity loss, second only to habitat fragmentation in recent decade. Europe is particularly affected by alien species, which are invading the continent an unprecedented pace. Their impact means that many of the region's rarest endemic species are on the brink of extinction and that our well-being and economies are affected. Establishing an early warning and rapid response framework for Europe become a key target. The present publication is the EEA contribution to achieving this goal.
The EU 2010 Biodiversity Baseline provides facts and figures on the state and trends of the different biodiversity and ecosystem components. It thereby supports the EU in developing the post‑2010 sub‑targets and provides factual data for measuring and monitoring progress in the EU from 2011 to 2020.
Cumulative national designated areas over time in the Western Balkans until 2008
How to read the graph: The indicator demonstrates the impact of climate change on widespread bird populations has increased strongly in the past twenty years. The Climatic Impact Indicator (CII) measures the divergence between the population trends of bird species projected to expand their range and those predicted to shrink their range due to climate change.
How to read the graph: The weighted population index of species expected to lose in range due to climatic change has decreased by 20% since 1989.
How to read the graph: The weighted population index of species expected to gain in range due to climatic change has increased by over 30 % since 1989.
In Europe, where the overwhelming majority of people live in urban areas, tackling the interlinked challenges between biodiversity and its network of towns and cities is crucial to help halting biodiversity loss.
The variety of life underpins our social and economic wellbeing and will be increasingly an indispensible resource in the battle against climate change. However, our consumption and production patterns are depriving ecosystems of their capacity to withstand climate change and deliver the services we need from them. As we understand more about the ways that climate change is impacting biodiversity, it becomes clear that we cannot tackle the two crises separately. Their interdependence requires us to address them together.
Protected areas provide a wide range of services in a context of increasing pressures and a rapidly changing environment. Europe is the region with the greatest number of protected areas in the world but they are relatively small in size. Europe's Natura 2000, unique in the world and still young, and the Emerald network under development, are international European networks of protected areas that catalyse biodiversity conservation.
Short assessment of the status of the European forest ecosystems
Marine ecosystems provide key services both globally and locally, which are essential for maintaining life on our planet. However, marine biodiversity faces an unprecedented range of pressures. In recent years climate change has caused changes in species distribution and presents new challenges for marine biodiversity as oceans become more acidic.
Freshwater ecosystems in Europe are rich in biodiversity but at risk. They provide essential ecosystem services to humans, such as cleaning water, preventing floods, producing food, providing energy and regulating freshwater resources...
From the depths of oceans to the highest summits, from icy waters to baking deserts, life flourishes in every corner of our planet. On 22 May, World Biodiversity Day, the European Environment Agency shows how by mimicking nature we can redesign our cities to enhance green space and biodiversity.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/biodiversity/dm or scan the QR code.
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