A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE IN OUR HANDS - To Parent Directory

Natural resources040© CorbisWhat the EU’s doingMoves to halt global warming, efforts to manage the waste weproduce, capping fishing quotas, all show the EU’s determinationto turn the situation around.It has set itself the objective of improving the management andavoiding the overexploitation of natural resources in such a way thatour rate of use matches regeneration and has listed these goals:• Contribute to halting and significantly reducing the rate ofworldwide biodiversity loss by 2010 and beyond• Clean up degraded marine environments by 2015 whichwould be in line with the Johannesburg Plan (2002) andavoid the over-exploitation of fish stocks• Work towards the United Nations targets on forest protectionby 2015• Improve the efficiency of use to make a little go a long wayand so gain a competitive advantage• Promote recycling and cut down on the generation ofwasteThese aims are going to be achieved through a variety ofmeasures.Over 26,000 sites making up an area the equivalent of Germanyand Italy put together have been chosen under the Natura 2000programme, based on the Habitats and Birds Directive. These sitesnow form a European network of protected areas selected by EUcountries which are legally obliged to ensure their conservation.The EU has signed up to the United Nations convention on biologicaldiversity which recognises the importance of our naturalheritage. The 2006 EU Biodiversity Communication sets out adetailed action plan to respond to the challenge of halting biodiversityloss by 2010.Agriculture and fisheries have seen many recent changes, theCommon Fisheries Policy has been reformed and in farming theCommon Agricultural Policy has shifted its focus away from supportfor production of agricultural products to general supportfor farmers. New laws concerning animal welfare and organicfood production, hygiene and food quality, deal with concernsthat more intensive farming was to blame for ‘mad cow disease’,