Conflicting EU Funds - WWF

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2. EUROPE’S NATURE & PROTECTION REGULATION
2.1
Europe’s natural heritage and
Community efforts to protect it
2.1.1
What is Europe’s natural heritage?
The European Union’s 25 Member States stretch
from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean, and
include a vast range of natural terrestrial and
marine habitats and a great diversity of flora
and fauna. There are several thousand types
of habitat, 150 species of mammal, 520 bird
species, 180 species of reptiles and amphibians,
150 species of fish, 10,000 plant species and
at least 100,000 species of invertebrate (CEC
undated).
Human activity has influenced the state of European
biodiversity for centuries. In pre-agricultural
times most of the lowlands of Europe were covered
in closed or semi-closed forest or appeared
as a park-like half-open forest (Vera 2000). In the
north-west of Europe, in areas with the highest
economic development and human population
density, natural ecosystems now persist only as
small and marginal zones amidst the extensive areas
dominated by agriculture and urban development
(EASAC 2005). Those sites not influenced
by humans represent the last remaining “wilderness-areas”
of Europe. However, human management
is now essential for many of the sites that
are valuable in terms of European biodiversity.
Why does it matter?
In her speech to the Third Pan-European
Conference Biodiversity in Europe held in
Madrid in January 2004, the then European
Commissioner for the Environment, Margot
Wallström, stated that the loss of biodiversity
matters for Ethical, Emotional, Environmental
and Economic reasons.
Compared to many areas of the world, especially
the tropics, biological diversity (biodiversity) in
Europe is relatively low (EASAC 2005). However,
there are many unique and endemic species and
ecosystems, such as the Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus);
the Cyprus Whipsnake (Coluber cypriensis);
Zino’s Petrel (Pterodroma madeira); and some
3,500 unique plant species (IUCN 2001). The
Mediterranean Basin (stretching into North
Africa) in particular is one of WWF’s Global 200
Ecoregions (a science-based global ranking
of the Earth’s most biologically outstanding
terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats
(WWF 2000) and is also recognised as a global
biodiversity hotspot (Conservation International
2005).