The Message from Athens _ Biodiversity Protection Beyond 2010

Athens, 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