New biodiversity strategy in the EU: can we learn from past lessons for the benefit of people and nature?

Global biodiversity crisis is the main environmental problem today besides climate change. The extinction of species is 100-1000 times higher than the background rate, with nearly one in six terrestrial mammals and more than one in five amphibians threatened in Europe.

This also has tangible negative effects on the society: biodiversity underpins ecosystem services, which contribute to human wellbeing through the provision of food, water, timber, stable climate, prevention from disasters, recreational opportunities and spiritual values among others.
In order to respond to the challenge and meet global and EU commitments, the European Commission released the new Biodiversity Strategy for the EU titled as ‘Our life insurance, our natural capital: an EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020’ as a follow up if the previous strategy, which expired in 2010. The new strategy includes six main targets, which are to be realized through several actions.
CEEweb for Biodiversity welcomes the new strategy and considers it as an important tool to implement main biodiversity commitments, such as the establishment and management of the Natura 2000 network protected under EU law and green infrastructure.
However, it lacks the political ambition of the EU to respond to the most important drivers of biodiversity loss and thus achieve significant improvements in the state of species and ecosystems.
While the effectiveness of the strategy will depend on the upcoming EU policy reforms on agriculture, fisheries and resource efficiency, as well as the new EU budget (2014-2021), the biodiversity strategy barely touches upon the main drivers behind biodiversity loss , and it fails to sufficiently inspire the necessary reforms and initiatives to deliver the desirable results.
CEEweb will call on the European Parliament and EU Member States to openly debate the underlying causes of biodiversity loss and support a reform of these policies which can address the problem.

“If we really want to protect biodiversity as our life insurance, we have to avoid the pitfalls of the previous strategy. We need to reduce our resource and land use and put ecosystem services at the heart of development planning,” says Klara Hajdu, CEEweb Secretary General.

Az erőforrás-hatékonyságtól az erőforrás-használat korlátozásáig - innovatív eszközök egy fenntartható Európáért

A 2011-es Zöld Hét során Brüsszelen kívül is megrendezésre kerül számos esemény az Európai Unió országainak különböző városaiban, köztük Budapesten is. Az idei Zöld Hét fókuszában a "Erőforrás Hatékonyság - Használjunk kevesebbet és éljünk jobban!" témája áll. A Zöld Héten hagyományosan, így a budapesti rendezvényen is, különböző ágazatok szakértői, így kormányzati és civil szervezetek, illetve az üzleti és tudományos élet képviselői cserélik ki tapasztalataikat és véleményüket.Az idei témához kapcsolódva különböző szektorokból érkező jeles előadók tárják fel három szekcióban a természeti erőforrások felhasználásának szabályozási vonatkozásait, a megvalósítás során felmerülő kihívásokat és lehetőségeket, illetve az erőforrás használat limitálásának szükségességét és alternatív megoldásait.

Az esemény panelbeszélgetéssel zárul.A rendezvény programja letölthető innen.

A rendezvény regisztrációs lapja letölthető innen.

Kérjük a regisztrációs lapot legkésőbb május 10-ig visszaküldeni az office@welove.hu email címre!

Az esemény az Európai Bizottság támogatásával valósul meg.

CEEweb policy and proactivity - strengthening the ties within our network

Dear CEEweb Members,

We are happy to invite you to the CEEweb Field Visit program which aims to strengthen the relation between the Head Office and member organizations

Objective: The Policy Office of CEEweb for Biodiversity wishes to make stronger personal and professional contacts with its member organizations. Building on the successful experience gained in 2010, members of the Policy Office will visit CEEweb organizations in 2011 and offer them a two-day-long training free of charge. The focus of the program will be professional and methodical capacity building.

Duration: two consecutive days (from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Participants: a group of minimum 8, maximum 16 people from CEEweb member organizations, thematically related local environmental NGOs or state partners

Language: the program will be held in English. In case translation is needed, trainers should be notified in advance, but the program can be simultaneously translated.

Costs: The CEEweb Office will provide trainers and handouts, but no translation fee, food and rent are covered by the project. Local member NGOs will have to find the venue and organize participants including interpretation.

Contents of the training:

The two-day-long program is about proactive lobbying, which is the main activity of CEEweb. On the first day we deal with the CEEweb policy and the exact content of CEEweb's lobbying activities. On the second day we look at the methodology of successful lobbying: the different levels of proactivity in the NGO sphere.

Day 1: CEEweb policy

1. What is the reason for a common CEEweb policy

2. CEEweb’s mission: what is sustainable development and why is it useful in the work of environmental NGOs?

3. Why is CEEweb’s policy different from other environmental NGOs policies

4. Nature vs. economy: how one value (economic growth) overthrows the others and how this imbalance can be cured.

5. Practical aspects of CEEweb’s policy: the Hungarian climate law

Day 2: Proactivity and success-training for NGO

1. Why do we need this training? The 3 sectors theory: pros and cons of working for an environmental NG

2. The 7 skills of success (Stephen Covey’s famous model

3. The art of goal setting

4. Proactivity as the “One ring to rule them all”: how you can make your work outstandingly efficient by being proactive instead of reactive.

5. Where and how the CEEweb network can becom

The dates for when the visits would take place are quite flexible, which means that we would give you opportunity to suggest a date that is most suitable for you and your team. If you are interested, please contact the Policy Office at ceeweb@ceeweb.org or directly Veronika Kiss, networking coordinator at kiss@ceeweb.org by 16^th May the latest.

I am looking forward to hearing from you

Best wishes

Veronika