Member states and the European Commission must “strengthen their efforts” to halt biodiversity loss by 2010, ministers agreed at a meeting in Brussels on Monday (3 March). The target was agreed EU-wide in 2006.
But the ministers watered down a German proposal that would have required member states to join a new scheme to fund nature conservation. On 18-19 May the German city of Bonn will host an international summit on biodiversity – the 9th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Germany had urged ministers to accept its ‘LifeWeb' initiative, a new scheme where signatories to the convention make payments to ensure better management of protected areas.
But some member states, including the UK and Austria, did not want compulsory EU participation in this scheme or compulsory financing. Ministers agreed that member states should be “encouraged” to participate in the initiative and that all financial commitments would be voluntary.
Go to the Content Friday, 12 March 2010
