Activities of Edite ESTRELA related to 2011/2307(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Our life insurance, our natural capital: an EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on our life insurance, our natural capital: an EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 PDF (336 KB) DOC (253 KB)
Amendments (47)
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 4 a (new)
Citation 4 a (new)
- having regard to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS),
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 4 a (new)
Citation 4 a (new)
- having regard to the Composite Report on the Conservation Status of Habitat Types and Species as required under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive, (COM(2009) 358 final);
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas nearly 65 % of the habitat types and 52 % of the species listed in the Annexes of the Habitats Directive has an unfavourable conservation status;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas 88 % of fish stocks are fished beyond maximum sustainable yield;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B c (new)
Recital B c (new)
Bc. whereas Europe's borders have already been breached by more than 11,000 alien species, at least 15 % of which are invasive and cause harm to biodiversity;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas genetic selection in forest tree species should not favour performance traits at the expense of adaptive ones;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Cb. whereas payment for ecosystem services (PES) is a promising innovative financial tool for biodiversity conservation;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C c (new)
Recital C c (new)
Cc. whereas a comprehensive Framework Directive on Soil is crucial for the EU to meet its new biodiversity strategy targets;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes and supports the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020, including its targets and actions; considerstresses, nevertheless, that some actions should be further strengthened and more concrete measures should be deployed;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses the urgent need for action, and the need to give higher political priority to biodiversity in order to meet the EU's 2020 headline target for biodiversity and global biodiversity commitments; emphasises that, with adequate financial resources and political will, the tools exist to halt the loss of biodiversity;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Whereas habitats and species are threatened by climate change; whereas nature conservation and biodiversity are crucial for mitigation of and adaptation to climate change,
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Notes the limited EU public awareness on the importance of biodiversity conservation and the severe environmental as well as socio-economic costs associated with its loss; stresses the need for a more comprehensive communication strategy, in line with Aichi target 1;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Deplores the fact that the Soil Framework Directive is still under consideration; calls on the Member States to give this issue a higher political priority and act urgently so as to fill this legislative gap and protect soil biodiversity across the EU;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Stresses that biodiversity loss refers not only to species and habitats but also to genetic diversity; calls on the European Commission to develop a strategy for the conservation of genetic diversity;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Highlights the importance of mainstreaming biodiversity protection into all EU policies – such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, regional policy and cohesion, energy, industry, transport tourism, development cooperation, research and innovation – in order to make the European Union's sectoral and budgetary policies more coherent;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Underlines that the EU biodiversity strategy should be fully integrated with the strategies for the mitigation of and adaption to climate change;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to pay greater attention to ensuring compliance with all European regulations and directives dealing in particular with nature conservation and maintaining biodiversity;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Notes that even with the full implementation of Target 1 of the new EU Biodiversity Strategy, the majority of EU habitats and species will still be left in an unfavourable conservation status; calls for the revision of Target 1, and stresses the need to adopt more ambitious targets in improving the conservation status of EU habitats and species;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Urges Member States to ensure that the process of designating Natura 2000 sites is finalised by 2012 in line with the Aichi Target 11; deplores greatly the delay in designating marine sites;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Calls on the Commission and Member States to ensure that the trade in European threatened species, in accordance with the IUCN Red List, must be subject to particularly strict regulation in order not to endanger further their survival and must only be authorized in exceptional circumstances;
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Urges the Commission to adopt a specific Green Infrastructure Strategy by 2012 at the latest, with biodiversity protection in rural areas as a primary objective;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Urges the Commission to develop as a matter of high priority the ‘'No Net Loss’' initiative, drawing also on the standards which form part of the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme; in this respect, notes the importance of applying such an approach to all EU habitats and species, and not solely to those already covered by the EU legislation;
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Given the current lack of knowledge among the general public about the importance of biodiversity, welcomes the communication campaign on Natura 2000 to be launched by Commission together with Member States, by 2013;
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Recalling that over half of Europe's territory is managed by farmers and that funding for the common agricultural policy (CAP) represents the largest single part of the EU budget, stresses that the CAP is an absolutely crucial tool for biodiversity conservation and the continuation of the associated ecosystem services it provides; calls, therefore, for a strong reorientation of the CAP towards the delivery of public goods;
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Recalling that over half of Europe's territory is managed by farmers, that farmland biodiversity is in continued decline, and that funding for the cCommon aAgricultural pPolicy (CAP) represents the largest single part of the EU budget, stresses that the CAP is an absolutely crucial tool for biodiversity; calls, therefore, for a strong reorientation of the CAP towards the delivery of public goods;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Maintains that assistance to public and private actors protecting forest biodiversity of species, habitats and ecosystem services must increase in the new CAP, and eligibility must also be extended to areas connecting NATURA 2000 sites;
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Calls for all CAP payments to be underpinned by robust Underscores that CAP direct aid is subject to the principle of ‘cross- compliance rules, covering the Water Framework Directive, pesticides legislation and the Birds and Habitats Directives’, which requires strict compliance with environmental rules, such as pesticides legislation and the Birds and Habitats Directive; takes note of the proposal put forth by the European Commission in the context of the CAP reform to include, in addition, the water framework Directive;
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls for a strengthening of Pillar II, currently the core element of the CAP delivering environmental benefits, and for drastic improvements to the environmental focus of that pillar and the effectiveness of its agroi-environmental measures, including through the inclusion of minimum mandatory spending on environmental measures; such as agri-environmental measures, Natura 2000 management and support for High Nature Value and organic farming;
Amendment 183 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Calls for the inclusion of a new CAP measure "in situ and ex situ conservation of source-identified forest genetic material";
Amendment 193 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. RequestEncourages the Commission and Member States to take advantagchange their perspective ofn the phenomenon of land abandonment in varioussome parts of Europe to rewild large parts of the landscape as major wilderness areas, seeing it also as a potential chance to rewild particularly large sites, on which management is no longer realistic,, providing new socio- economic opportunities for rural development whilst preserving Europe's biodiversity;
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Urges Member States to design their forestry policy in a way that takes fully into account the importance of forests in protecting biodiversity, in preventing soil erosion, in carbon sequestration and air purification and in maintaining the water cycle;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 b (new)
Paragraph 17 b (new)
17b. Urges the Member States to include ecosystem-based measures to increase the resilience of forests against fires, as part of forest fire prevention schemes in their forest management plans;
Amendment 203 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Welcomes the Commission's proposals for the reform of the common fisheries policy (CFP), which should guarantee the implementation of the ecosystem approach and the application of updated scientific information serving as the basis for long- term management plans for all commercially exploited fish species; emphasises that only sustainable fishing offers a future for thethrough ensuring the long term sustainability of fish stocks can we ensure the economic and social viability of the European fisheries sector;
Amendment 205 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to implement marine protected areas in which economic activities, including fishing, are the subject of strengthened ecosystem based management, making it possible to reconcile preserving the environment and practising sustainable fishing;
Amendment 212 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to step up efforts to ensure that catches fall below Mensure that scientifically based catch and/or effort limits, in accordance with the goal of restoring and maintaining populations of harvested species above levels which can produce the maximum Ssustainable Yyield (MSY) levels by 2015, and to incorporate ecological considerations into the definition of MSYre fully respected; to his end stresses that a lack of adequate scientific data should not be used as an excuse for inaction, in such cases fishing mortality rates should be decreased on a precautionary basis;
Amendment 214 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20a. Stresses that the new CFP and all subsequent measures adopted by Member States shall be in full compliance with Directive 92/43/EEC, Directive 2009/147/EC and Directive 2008/56/EC;
Amendment 215 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Stresses that the aim of eliminating discards and by-catches of protected non- target species, including cetaceans, sea turtles and sea birds should be incorporated into the CFP and implemented as a matter of urgency; Moreover the new CFP should include a clear obligation to release non-target species with a high chance of survival;
Amendment 227 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that measures taken to prevent both the entry of new invasive alien species into the EU, from captive animal facilities in the EU and the spread of currently established invasive alien species to new areas;
Amendment 230 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Recognises that prevention is more cost-effective and environmentally desirable than measures taken following the introduction and establishment of an invasive alien species; calls therefore on the Commission and the Members States to ensure that, as supported in the Convention on Biological Diversity, prevention is a priority with the import, trade and keeping of invasive alien species regulated at the EU-level based on transparent, scientific guidelines;
Amendment 237 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Urges the Commission to come forward in 2012 with a legislative proposal which takes a holistic approach to the problem of invasive alien species, which includes requirements to monitor imports of exotic and native species and increased restrictions on the import and private ownership of threatened species;
Amendment 247 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24a. Given the global character of biodiversity and ecosystem services and their crucial role for the global objectives of sustainable development, underlines that the EU strategy must also step up EU international efforts to avert biodiversity loss and thereby contribute more effectively to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015;
Amendment 253 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 b (new)
Paragraph 24 b (new)
24b. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to effectively mainstream environmental sustainability in their relations with third countries and to take measures to reduce the negative impacts of EU consumption patterns on biodiversity, by incorporating initiatives for sustainable agriculture and wildlife trade in all trade agreements; supports the Commission's proposal to include a chapter on sustainable development including biodiversity goals in all new trade agreements;
Amendment 263 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 a (new)
Paragraph 25 a (new)
25a. Stresses the need to increase the budget for research dedicated to the environment and biodiversity under the next Research Framework Programme, proportionate to the huge needs and challenges of tackling both biodiversity loss and climate change, in order to contribute to closing identified knowledge gaps and supporting policy;
Amendment 266 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 a (new)
Paragraph 26 a (new)
26a. Welcomes the launch of the Business and Biodiversity Platform by the Commission to engage the private sector in the biodiversity agenda;
Amendment 267 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 a (new)
Paragraph 26 a (new)
26a. Urges the Commission to report to Parliament and the Council on options for the introduction of payments for ecosystem services taking into account the role of biodiversity conservation;
Amendment 268 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Stresses the imperative need to ensure that the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2014-2020) supports the achievement of the six targets set out in the Biodiversity Strategy and that the funding for the LIFE programme is reinforced;
Amendment 282 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28a. Notes with concern that the number of projects financed under the LIFE+ programme each year is below the indicative allocation in various Member States; invites the Commission to assess the reasons for this under-implementation and where necessary to propose changes to the rules governing the programme, particularly as regards co-financing levels;