The European Commission published the “EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030”. Education, research and innovation will play an important role to turn it into reality.
The strategy that the European Commission (EC) adopted together with an Action Plan on 20 May highlights in clear words the fundamental importance that the EC attributes to biodiversity – the extraordinary variety of life on Earth: “We humans are part of, and fully dependent on, this web of life: it gives us the food we eat, filters the water we drink, and supplies the air we breathe.” The strategy goes on with concrete examples that demonstrate the extent of how essential biodiversity is, for instance for safeguarding food security. The EC plans to make the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 a cornerstone for the implementation of the European Green Deal agenda. The document also points to the current COVID-19 pandemic and mentions that the protection and restoration of biodiversity and well-functioning ecosystems is also “key to boost our resilience and prevent the emergence and spread of future diseases”.
The focus of the biodiversity strategy is to improve protection and restoration of nature. By 2030, a minimum of 30% of the EU’s land area and 30% of the EU’s sea area should be legally protected. Legally binding EU nature restoration targets will be proposed in 2021. The strategy states already today the goals to plant three billion new trees and to restore 25’000 km of free-flowing rivers by 2030. Furthermore, by 2030 the risk and use of chemical pesticides should be reduced by 50%. Farming will have to adapt and at least 25% of agricultural land is planned to be under organic farming management by 2030. An important goal is to reverse the decline in pollinators. Also urban areas play an important part in the EC’s strategy: All cities with at least 20’000 inhabitants have to develop an ambitious Urban Greening Plan.
Education, research and innovation (ERI) will play an important part in enabling the strategy to save the planet’s biodiversity. Drawing on ERI will e.g. be key to measure the state of biodiversity, to assess effects of different policy options. This will provide an important decision-making basis for policy and technology choices: “Research and innovation can test and develop how to prioritise ‘green’ over ‘grey’ solutions and help the Commission to support investments in nature-based solutions.”
Research and innovation contributions to the biodiversity strategy will be implemented via the upcoming Horizon Europe programme, which will include a long-term strategic research agenda for biodiversity. The EC hopes that the new instrument of Horizon Europe’s Missions will significantly contribute to the endeavour to fill knowledge gaps and come up with new solutions to improve biodiversity. Furthermore, the EC plans to promote and facilitate Partnerships, including a dedicated Biodiversity Partnership, to better connect science, policy and practice in order to make nature-based solutions a reality in Europe. Already in 2020, the EC plans to establish a new Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity in cooperation with the European Environment Agency.
Education will play an important part in the EC’s strategy as well: The new Skills Agenda will focus on how to support students and workers on their transition to the jobs of a green economy and the fight against biodiversity loss. In addition, the EC plans to foster the integration of biodiversity and ecosystems into school education, higher education and professional training. To that end, the EC will provide materials and facilitate the exchange of good practices in EU networks of teacher-training programmes. In 2021, the EC plans to propose a Council Recommendation on encouraging cooperation in education for environmental sustainability.