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The conference is organised under the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and will be live streamed on EU2015.LV. Preservation of biodiversity is one of the Latvian Presidency priorities in the field of environmental protection.
Discussions regarding the challenges on halting biodiversity loss within the EU by 2020 will be held on 26 May. These discussions will serve as an input to the European Commission’s (EC) upcoming Mid-Term Review of the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy. The State of Nature in the European Union Report published by the EC on 19 May, 2015 will serve as the basis for the discussions. The report has been prepared by analysing the EU Member States’ reports on the conservation status of the wild bird species, habitat types and other species. The report concludes that the overall EU status of species and habitats has not significantly changed over the last six years, although some of the species and habitats are beginning showing some signs of improvement.
During the informal meeting of the EU Environment Ministers in Riga, April 2015, Ministers agreed that it is essential to find and create synergies with other policies, for further conservation of biodiversity. Therefore, preservation of biodiversity will be address in the context of making and implementing other policies, for example, energy and agriculture policy.
On 27 May, participants will exchange views on ecosystems and their assessment, including the contribution of the natural capital into economic development. Experts from Belgium, France and Italy will share good practice examples.
Being aware of the importance of financial resources for the preservation of biodiversity and the importance of natural capital within the economy, participants will have the opportunity to become acquainted with the various financial instruments available at the EU and national level.
The two-day conference will be organised by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of Latvia in collaboration with the European Commission, Latvian Fund for Nature, European Environmental Bureau and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the EC LIFE Nature project “Birds in Ādaži”. The Latvian Fund for Nature and the European Environmental Bureau implement the project that enables active participation of non-governmental organisations in the conference, receiving support of Latvian state budget-funded programme Support for public participation in implementing the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
On 28-29 May, EU Biodiversity and Nature Directors will meet in Riga, with an aim to promote a successful and harmonized implementation of the EU's nature policy. The meeting organised in Latvia will cover issues related to the implementation of the Biodiversity Strategy, such as securing available and necessary funding for its implementation (e.g. cost accounting), planning of EU funds and attainment of the objectives in cooperation with all EU Member States, and other significant EU nature conservation law enforcement issues.
