Public subsidies harmful to biodiversity (Policy Brief 246 - October 2011)
The role of biodiversity in the functioning of the natural balance and the ability of ecosystems to deliver services of interest to man is not well identified by the general public.
- Public subsidies harmful to biodiversity
But it gives us food, fuel, building materials. It also allows the water purification, stabilization and moderation of global climate, control of floods and droughts, etc.. Within the European Union, France has a richness and a special responsibility not only by the great diversity of ecosystems within its metropolitan territory but also that of their communities overseas, which alone , home to 3,450 plant species and 380 endemic vertebrates, more than any continental Europe.
However, in France in the world, the pace of species extinction is generally much higher than the natural rate for several decades. Some even hold the view that a new phase of mass extinction (the sixth to the geological time scale) is underway. This loss of biodiversity, mainly of human origin, results from the destruction and degradation of natural habitats and semi-natural, over-exploitation of renewable natural resources, pollution, climate change and the spread of invasive alien species .
Since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, reducing the loss of biodiversity is a recurrent objective in international forums as well as national. The last Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, held in Nagoya in October 2010, notably led to the adoption of a strategic plan to fight against the loss of biodiversity by 2020. Among its various targets, the reform, the elimination or reduction of public incentives harmful to biodiversity has been confirmed as a priority: it is the purpose of this note, centered on the French case.
Contents:
- Biodiversity pillar of sustainable development
- Capital outstanding but threatened
- A political awareness
- Revise state aid harmful to biodiversity
- The five major causes of biodiversity loss
- Some proposals for reform of state aid harmful
- Authors: Géraldine Ducos, Sustainable Development Department and Guillaume Sainteny, lecturer at the Ecole Polytechnique, Chairman of the working group on public support for biodiversity.
With the help of Jean-Michel Salles, INRA, and Dominique Auverlot and Jean-Luc Pujol, Sustainable Development Department
Press Contact:
Jean-Michel Roullé, Head of Communications
Phone: +33 (0)1 42 75 61 37 - jean-michel.roulle@strategie.gouv.fr
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