Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Biosphere - WBGU

The role of the Biodiversity Convention within the institutional network I 3.3
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that establishes a limit to the EU’s exercising competence.
According to this principle, the Community
may only become active in the area of environmental
protection in cases where responsibilities compete, if
and to the extent to which the goals of the measures
in question cannot be achieved at the member state
level.
Shortly after the CBD entered into force, EU
Directive 92/43 on the Conservation of Natural
Habitats and of Wild Flora and Fauna (Habitats
Directive) was adopted. To the extent to which the
sphere regulated by this Directive and the Directive
on the Conservation of Wild Birds (Birds Directive
79/409/EEC) adopted in 1979 comprises the commitments
of the CBD, the member states may no longer
independently become active beyond implementation
of the Directive. And so by the same token that
means that for those spheres that are not covered by
the Directive, each member state must become active
in order to fulfil its obligation under international
law. There is therefore a need to delineate the substantive
scope of the Directive. The main goal of the
Habitats Directive is to promote the conservation of
biological diversity. The legally binding goal of the
Directive (Art. 2 para 1) is limited in the German
version to ‘species diversity’ [Artenvielfalt], which
would suggest a translation error, since the English
and French versions talk about biodiversity and biodiversité
respectively at that point.
This goal is to be achieved through provisions to
conserve natural habitats and regulations on direct
species conservation (bans on culling, fishing and disturbance,
as well as trade bans). The core element of
the Directive is to establish a coherent, European
ecological network of Special Areas of Conservation
(SACs) called NATURA 2000 (Art. 3 para 1 of the
Habitats Directive). Furthermore, transnational,
contiguous land conservation is to be created that
would counteract the hitherto insular nature of protected
areas and therefore also allow for the genetic
exchange of wild species that is necessary to the conservation
of biological diversity (Section E 3.3.2).
The protective mechanisms of the Habitats Directive
only take place in areas designated in that context.
Conservation of biological diversity outside the
areas to be created therefore remains the responsibility
of member states (Freiburg, 1998). Ecosystems
whose diversity also falls under the conservation
efforts of the Convention are of central importance
in the CBD (Art. 2 para 14 of the CBD; Section D 2).
The definition of the ecosystem by contrast is not
mentioned at all in the Habitats Directive. The central
term in that context is the natural habitat, which
is defined by geographical, biotic and abiotic features
as a completely natural or semi-natural terrestrial or
aquatic area. In the habitats listed in the annex to the
Directive one finds areas with definitions as varying
in precision as fruit, hay or salt meadows, high and
low heathland, rivers, ponds or mudflats. The definition
of habitat pertains to the perspective of the
species or individual organism, that of ecosystems
underlines the functional interdependence between
biotic and abiotic nature. These two terms certainly
overlap, that is not disputed (Freiburg, 1998). What
remains questionable however is whether the protective
mechanisms created under the Habitats Directive
for habitats also provide sufficient conservation
for the diversity of ecosystems. If this is not be the
case it remains the task of the states and governments
to put in place further regulations by which to
fulfil their commitments under the CBD.
Protected areas are often only inadequately delineable
within certain national borders (Section
E 3.3.2).Therefore certain of the CBD goals can only
be implemented at the transnational level. With the
EU therefore there is an opportunity for implementing
the CBD since it can organize the creation of a
networked system of landscape conservation across
national boundaries. The EU as a regional organization
with far-reaching powers in the environmental
sphere can exercise a model role here. It should
therefore be considered whether one could not form
regional frameworks in other regions that could
assume transnational organizational functions in the
context of environmental protection. It would
appear, however, difficult to realize such an idea.
Even at EU level the success of the Habitats Directive
is completely dependent on the will of member
states to cooperate. No area can be placed under protection
by the EU against the will of the respective
member state.
More detailed discussion of the rather unsatisfactory
status of implementation of the Habitats Directive
and the envisaged EU-wide NATURA 2000 network
in Germany can be found in Section E 3.3.2.6.
I 3.4
Agreements and arrangements under the UNCED
follow-up process
I 3.4.1
AGENDA 21 and the Commission on Sustainable
Development
Under the auspices of the Commission on Sustainable
Development (CSD) the agreed guidelines and
programmes of AGENDA 21 are being pursued and
dealt with chapter by chapter, including Chapter 15
where measures for the conservation and sustainable
use of biological diversity are addressed. At the 8th