Support to assessment of progress of halting biodiversity loss with respect to the marine environment for the EEA 2005 State of the Environment and Outlook Report (EEA)

The European Environment Agency (EEA) publishes a report every five years on the state of, trends in and prospects for the environment.  These reports are supplemented by indicator reports focusing upon specific issues.

The most recent ‘State of the Environment and Outlook Report’, entitled ‘Europe’s Environment at the Turn of the Century’ was published in 1999. The next State of the Environment and Outlook report is due to be published in 2005 (SOER2005), in order to comply with the EEA Regulation and to support the mid-term review of the 6th Environment Action Programme (6EAP).

The current thinking of the EEA is that SOER2005 will be a brief and concise report supplemented by a number of sub-reports, including one with the working title “Halting biodiversity loss”. The main focus of this sub-report is to assess the progress towards the target of the EU 6th Environment Action Programme (6EAP) of halting biodiversity loss in Europe by 2010 (the ‘2010 biodiversity target’). The report thus aims at presenting the state and trends of (certain) elements of European biodiversity in relation to major pressures and analyse the most important European policies and instruments of relevance for biodiversity.

The focus will be on problem areas and policies highlighted in the 6EAP. The report will be a first analysis of progress towards the 2010 biodiversity target. It will be an integrated approach addressing European biodiversity according to the driving force, pressure, state, impact and response conceptual framework.