EU- Ministers 'deeply concerned' by biodiversity loss

[Staff]

Ministers 'deeply concerned' by biodiversity loss[fr]
Published: Friday 26 June 2009

EurActiv.com - Ministers 'deeply concerned' by biodiversity loss | EU - European Information on Environment
excerpt from above:

EU environment ministers yesterday (25 June) called for better evaluation of EU policies to protect biodiversity and asked for 'ecosystem services' to be integrated into the bloc's policies in order to measure the drivers of biodiversity loss.

Meeting in Luxembourg, the ministers declared themselves "deeply concerned" by the European Commission's recent assessment that the EU is unlikely to meet its 2010 target of halting biodiversity decline.

Ecosystems pricing

With the EU failing to achieve its biodiversity protection targets, the European Environment Agency (EEA) is calling for protection measures to be integrated into agricultural, forestry and fisheries policies, and goods and services to be priced according to their true impact on the environment.

The current price of goods and services "does not reflect their impact on the ecosystems that sustain them," according to the agency. The EEA believes "better ecosystem accounting, which indicates the real value of the natural capital that we deplete through our economic activity," is necessary.

[Equilibrium]

Ecosystem pricing is an interesting concept we should be exploring.