The Message from Athens _ Biodiversity Protection Beyond 2010

© Luc Viatour / WikipediaAthens,
28 April 2009
- A conference on Biodiversity Protection
beyond 2010 organized by the European Commission in Athens,
took place in Greece from 27-28 April 2009. All important
actors engaged in the development and implementation of
EU biodiversity policy together with international institutions
and globally recognized experts met in Athens to examine
the progress made to halt the loss of biodiversity and
the ways to improve its performance.


The conclusion made is that on the one hand, good progress
has been made in the establishment of the largest network
of protected areas in the world but on the other hand,
it was also noted that the target to halt the loss of
biodiversity by 2010 would not be met. Taking into account
the speed and scale of the loss of biodiversity, it was
agreed that urgent action must be taken.

At the end of this two-day conference ‘The
message from Athens'
(was adopted, which
contains ideas for the future biodiversity policy of the
European Commission. This document is designed to capture
the key issues (challenges and potential responses) for
EU biodiversity policy. It is based on inputs received
before the conference, the output from the 'High-level
working group on the 2010 biodiversity target and post-2010
target(s)' hosted by Germany (9-10 March 2009, Bonn, Germany),
the conclusions from the meeting of G8 environment ministers
held in Syracuse (22-24 April 2009, Syracuse, Italy),
the presentations and discussions from the Athens conference
and comments made by participants on a previous draft
circulated during the conference. The European Commission
will produce a final version of this document on the basis
of the comments and discussions that took place in the
final plenary session.

Bert Lenten, Executive Secretary of AEWA represented
both AEWA and CMS at the conference. He hopes that the
message of Athens will be clearly heard by all stakeholders
and decision makers and that more will be done to achieve
the targets to avoid any further loss of biodiversity.

For more information please visit:


http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/conference/index_en.htm
http://webcast.ec.europa.eu/eutv/portal/archive.html?viewConference=6524

Dernière mise à jour le 16 Juin 2014