Biodiversity

Our Work

Over the past few decades biodiversity conservation has risen up the EU political agenda and financing from the Community budget now forms an important part of the overall funding of conservation within the EU. However, it is commonly considered that the EU budget’s financial contribution to biodiversity remains low and the resulting loss of ecosystems and their services is causing significant costs to society.

Work is ongoing at the EU level to reflect the priorities of the present policy agenda in the Community budget better, and while the focus on certain environmental priorities such as climate change is important biodiversity conservation needs to be given greater priority than is currently the case.

IEEP has several years of experience in contributing to the debates on the EU financing of biodiversity. Our work has focused around assessing how much money has been directed towards biodiversity protection, explaining where there are opportunities to attract funding, and making recommendations to ensure that funding is adequate to meet biodiversity objectives.

We have also produced key reports that outline the case for investing in protected areas by drawing together the evidence on their social and economic benefits. Our goals in this area are to ensure that policy-makers understand the benefits associated with investing in nature conservation, and to demonstrate the opportunities for improved financing through existing and innovative financing policies. In this respect there are close links with IEEP’s agriculture work on the role that agri-environment measures and other CAP funds can play in supporting biodiversity conservation.

More about our work in this area...

Latest in Financing Biodiversity

Highlights