State of play, main conclusions, outlook

The EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 adopted in 2011 aimed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss within the EU and on a global scale - and with this, to maintain the capacity of natural ecosystems to provide for human needs. The strategy set six operational targets supported by 20 time-bound actions aimed at fully implementing the EU nature legislation, restoring ecosystems and their services, ensuring sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries, combating invasive alien species and tackling the global biodiversity crisis, as well as horizontal measures to build partnerships and mobilise funding.

The evaluation of the Strategy revealed that, despite progress in some areas, the EU and its Member States had not succeeded in halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2020. It recognised some significant achievements in restoring local habitats and species’ populations, advancing knowledge, putting in place new legislation and mobilising additional resources. However, it also noted that progress on the ground had been uneven and insufficient. The framework set by the Strategy had not been comprehensive, targeted and powerful enough to tackle key pressures on biodiversity, enable urgent protection and restoration efforts at scale, prioritise sustainable land and sea uses and the deployment of nature-based solutions, mobilise sufficient financing, close major knowledge gaps and ensure ownership and responsibility by all actors for delivering the biodiversity targets.

There are significant variations of magnitude in the estimates of the costs and benefits of implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. Evidence and examples were found of the costs of individual initiatives. However, available evidence did not allow to estimate the total actual spending across all targets, the potential benefits from their full implementation as well as the costs incurred for stakeholders, or in some cases, to separate the actual costs and benefits incurred by the Strategy from those incurred by other policies or factors. Tracking of financing and its effectiveness has been a major challenge to implementation.

Nevertheless, available evidence overwhelmingly indicates that the benefits flowing from healthy ecosystems to society far exceed the burden and costs related to their protection, restoration and sustainable management, across all biodiversity targets. Better understanding of these benefits and of approaches to tap into synergies with other policy objectives (for example, by deploying nature-based solutions) could have helped to mobilise further financing as well as boost wider policy objectives.

The evaluation highlighted the need for SMART¹ biodiversity targets, clear implementation responsibilities, synergies with wider socio-economic objectives and with climate change mitigation and adaption efforts, tackling key drivers of loss, a better mix of policy instruments to ensure implementation (including legal ones where needed), substantial increases in biodiversity funding, improved tracking, effective monitoring, reporting and review, as well as enhanced knowledge.

Findings that emerged during the evaluation have helped shape the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 adopted in 2020. The strategy aims to put Europe's biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030. It provides a comprehensive EU framework with concrete, time-bound and measurable targets, clearly assigned responsibilities for implementation and a strong focus on win-win solutions for biodiversity, health, climate and development. The Strategy includes targets and measures to establish a coherent EU network of protected areas on land and at sea, restore degraded ecosystems and manage them sustainably, enable transformative change and support global biodiversity through the EU’s external actions. It announces a range of policy instruments to ensure the delivery of the targets and commitments.   

As part of this restoration agenda, the Commission published, in June 2022 a proposal for an EU Regulation on Nature Restoration , based on an impact assessment. The proposal aims to restore ecosystems, habitats and species across the EU’s land and sea areas in order to:

• enable the long-term and sustained recovery of biodiverse and resilient nature

• contribute to achieving the EU’s climate mitigation and climate adaptation objectives

• meet international commitments

The proposed Nature Restoration Regulation combines an overarching restoration objective for the long-term recovery of EU nature with binding restoration targets for specific habitats and species. These measures should cover at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030, and ultimately all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. EU countries would be required to submit National Restoration Plans to the Commission, as well as to monitor and report on their progress. Discussions on the proposed Regulation have started in the Council and in the European Parliament.

In order to monitor progress in the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and improve accountability, two online tools have been launched. An  actions tracker provides up-to-date information on the state of implementation of the strategy’s actions. A targets dashboard is under development and will be gradually completed with indicators to show progress to the quantified biodiversity targets set by the Strategy, at the EU level and in the Member States.

¹ Specific, measurable, realistic and time-bound.