The European Union has made little progress in halting biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystem services, according to the mid-term review of the EU biodiversity strategy, published by the European Commission on Friday. The report assesses whether the EU is on track to achieve its biodiversity targets in six main areas by 2020. The results show that progress has been slow in most areas and that Member States need to undertake greater efforts. “Nature’s capacity to clean the air and water, to pollinate crops and to limit the impacts of catastrophes such as flooding is being compromised, with potentially significant unforeseen costs to society and our economy”, the European Commission said. When the EU adopted the biodiversity strategy in 2010, up to 25% of European animal species were facing extinction and 65% of habitats were in an unfavourable conservation status. In the meantime, the number of species and habitats with a positive or improved conservation status has increased slightly. While populations of common bird species have started stabilising since 2010, farmland birds have continued to decline. Pollination services are in steep decline with multiple pressures on wild bees, the report warns. In addition, grassland butterflies are declining severely and there is no sign of levelling off. “The key threats to biodiversity – habitat loss (in particular through urban sprawl, agricultural intensification, land abandonment, and intensively managed forests), pollution, over-exploitation (in particular fisheries), invasive alien species and climate change – continue to exert pressure, causing the loss of species and habitats and weakening ecosystem resilience.” The EU-28 footprint is still more than twice its biocapacity, taking a heavy toll on biodiversity outside Europe. With regard to the third target, increasing the contribution of agriculture and forestry to maintaining and enhancing biodiversity, the EU has made no significant overall progress. According to the report, the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) provides a range of instruments that can contribute to supporting biodiversity. However, if the third biodiversity target is to be achieved, these opportunities need now to be taken up by Member States on a sufficient scale. The authors stress that local examples demonstrate successful sustainable agricultural practices, which, if implemented more broadly, could put the EU back on track to achieve the target by 2020. (ab)