EU funds and biodiversity
EU funds and biodiversity
The points A – K below represent arguments made in the text beneath them. Can you identify in which paragraph(s) (1-5) the points below are made?
A WWF makes the point that individual member states need to be pro-active in co-operating with EU environmental programmes.
B There has been some serious overfishing of tuna, so it is now at risk.
C The WWF report Conflicting EU funds has selected eight case studies to illustrate some contradictory policies concerning certain areas of the natural environment.
D A main road being built on EU funds will run directly through a habitat used by brown bears, an endangered species.
E Roads, dams and irrigation schemes are typical of the type of building programmes which can threaten endangered species.
F If we want our countries to be successful from an economic perspective we must protect our natural environments.
G This paragraph illustrates a case or cases where the EU has given funding to protect some aspect of the natural environment, but at the same time has also funded an activity which actually threatens that very same habitat.
H The EU has been responsible for a lot of destruction of natural habitats in the past.
I The crux of the problem seems to be poor decision-making and co-ordination both at regional and national levels.
J A main road being built on EU funds will run directly through a habitat used by a big cat, an endangered species.
K It would be disastrous for the EU to destroy what it is supposed to be protecting.
The EU giveth and the EU taketh away…
1 The European Union is spending huge amounts on roads, dams and irrigation schemes which threaten critically endangered species and key habitats in Europe while also funding schemes to protect them. A new WWF report, Conflicting EU funds, presents several case studies showing where competing plans funded by the EU are damaging biodiversity. It shows that species ranging from bluefin tuna to the Iberian lynx and Greece’s brown bear population are under fire from EU-funded projects.
2 The report identifies the conflicting situation where despite the EU’s commitment to halt biodiversity loss by 2010, EU funds are being used for activities that are recognised as major threats by the EU itself.
"Europe has to take responsibility for its own species, but at present the European Union is using its funds to both support biodiversity and undermine it," says Stefanie Lang, Regional Policy Officer at WWF’s European Policy Office.
"This is an unacceptable situation caused by bad decisions at national or regional level and poor coordination between Member States and the European Commission."
3 As the EU is shaping new funding regulations for the period 2007-2013, the report presents eight case studies where competing plans funded by the EU are damaging biodiversity. In Spain, EU funds are used for infrastructure, such as 20 dams and 16 roads, including the new main road Toledo-Ciudad Real-Puertollano-Cordoba, that will have a detrimental impact on the habitat of the Iberian lynx – the world’s most endangered cat species, with a population of only about 100 individuals left. This habitat is protected under the Natura 2000 network.
4 Similarly, EU funds have been used to overexploit bluefin tuna fisheries in the Mediterranean, and to promote damaging agricultural subsidies which have resulted in the mismanagement of cork oak forests in Portugal. In Greece, while the EU Commission Directorate General (DG) responsible for the environment is supporting a LIFE project to protect brown bears, the DG Regional Development is funding the planned Egnatia Highway, which directly threatens these animals.
5 WWF urges the EU to withdraw funds that conflict with biodiversity goals and EU environmental legislation, and says that EU funds must include priority measures to protect biodiversity and Natura 2000 sites. WWF also recommends that EU Member States develop good national programmes that contribute to the 2010 goal.
"If we are to halt the loss of biodiversity and preserve the remaining natural heritage of Europe, which is essential for long term economic prosperity, the EU cannot afford to continue funding the destruction of habitats and environmentally damaging infrastructures as it has in the past," says Gerald Dick of WWF’s Global Species Programme.
Answers to the exercise tracing the points to their paragraphs