European Commission adopts an EU biodiversity strategy to 2020

The European Commission has adopted an ambitious new strategy to halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU by 2020. There are six main targets, and 20 actions to help Europe reach its goal. Biodiversity loss is an enormous challenge in the EU, with around one in four species currently threatened with extinction and 88% of fish stocks over-exploited or significantly depleted.
The six targets cover:
• Full implementation of EU nature legislation to protect biodiversity
• Better protection for ecosystems, and more use of green infrastructure
• More sustainable agriculture and forestry
• Better management of EU fish stocks
• Tighter controls on invasive alien species
• A bigger EU contribution to averting global biodiversity loss
The strategy is in line with two commitments made by EU leaders in March 2010 – halting the loss of biodiversity in the EU by 2020, and protecting, valuing and restoring EU biodiversity and ecosystem services by 2050. It is also in line with global commitments made in Nagoya in October 2010, in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity, where world leaders adopted of a package of measures to address global biodiversity loss over the coming decade.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/comm2006/2020.htm