Biodiversity

Our Work

The EU has a well-established biodiversity conservation policy framework that has provided major benefits for biodiversity in Europe. IEEP has a strong track record of assessing and advising on the implementation, monitoring and enforcement of EU policy for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Our work, with partners, helps to strengthen the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the Habitats and Birds Directives and the Natura 2000 network. We seek to improve our knowledge of the status of biodiversity in Europe and globally, and highlight the cost of policy inaction.

IEEP continues to be instrumental in developing nature conservation policy and other sectoral policies to support biodiversity and ecosystem services. We are advancing the Biodiversity Strategy objective of ‘no net loss’ of biodiversity, by identifying policy measures to avoid and minimise negative impacts on biodiversity, and to offset residual impacts tools.

IEEP has helped to establish a structured process to minimize harmful impacts of EU spending and maximise the biodiversity benefits through our work on ‘biodiversity proofing’ EU funding instruments such as those under the Common Agricultural Policy, Common Fisheries Policy, Cohesion Policy. Our work has also helped to develop policy measures to support the concept of green infrastructure, by assessing its potential costs and benefits, and identifying policies that could support its enhancement.

More about our work in this area...

Latest in Biodiversity Policy & Instruments

  • Wildlife crime and the EU

    Wildlife crime threatens global biodiversity. The EU is both a destination and a transit region for illegally-traded products. A new study for the European Parliament summarises the situation in Europe and offers policy recommendations in view of the upcoming EU Action Plan. A set of in-depth case studies outline the situation in five EU countries.

  • IEEP to support the European Commission’s nature legislation fitness check

    As part of its Smart Regulation policy the European Commission is to undertake a Fitness Check of EU Nature legislation, which will comprise a comprehensive assessment of whether the regulatory framework is “fit for purpose”. IEEP is part of a consortium, led by Milieu, that has been awarded the study contract to support the Commission in collecting and assessing evidence for the fitness check.

  • Policy Options to Achieve No Net Loss of Biodiversity

    A new IEEP led study concludes that mandatory biodiversity offsetting is required to achieve no net loss of biodiversity in the EU, but its introduction could be counter-productive if it is not introduced cautiously and regulated strictly. The first priority should be to better implement existing nature conservation measures.

Highlights

  • Wildlife crime and the EU

    Wildlife crime threatens global biodiversity. The EU is both a destination and a transit region for illegally-traded products. A new study for the European Parliament summarises the situation in Europe and offers policy recommendations in view of the upcoming EU Action Plan. A set of in-depth case studies outline the situation in five EU countries.