7-9 September 2009, Strömstad, Sweden
In the framework of the Swedish EU-Presidency the Swedish Minister for the Environment Andreas Carlgren invited European environmental ministers and experts to a meeting on „Visions for Biodiversity beyond 2010 – People, Ecosystem Services and the Climate Crisis“.

The conclusions of the meeting give a strong and supportive message for the need of a new biodiversity policy post 2010 and ask for a reorientation towards a sustainable land use in all sectors and areas. The loss of nature’s capital would, in the long term, have far more severe consequences than today’s financial crisis, while investments in protection of biodiversity generate high net returns and counteract the economic impact of climate change. Furthermore, protection of biodiversity is interlinked with poverty alleviation and economic growth.

Andreas Carlgren: “Protecting biological diversity is not just about preserving an exotic species of butterfly. It is about protecting the building blocks of nature, and thus of society. The fact that biological diversity continues to be depleted is just as catastrophic for the economy as the climate crisis, and it is much worse than the current financial crisis.”

The participants of the meeting agreed, that a new global vision for biodiversity is needed, to support the efficiency of global governance of biodiversity and ecosystem services like production of food, clean water or flood protection. The new vision should link biodiversity, climate change and development agendas more closely together and promote the integration of biodiversity related measures into all relevant sectoral and cross-sectoral policies, programs and strategies as well as in planning processes.

Environmental Minister Andreas Carlgren promised that biodiversity issues will be a priority of the Swedish Presidency: “We are committed to environmental issues, so biological diversity is an obvious choice; but this knowledge needs to be spread. In recent years, biological diversity has mainly received attention in light of the climate change issue. The climate affects biological diversity and the ecosystems; at the same time, a healthy ecosystem can meet and counter the climate crisis. This is why biological diversity is a prerequisite for sustainable development. Biological diversity is a far-reaching and important issue in its own right, and we would like to focus on this in particular during the Presidency.”

Andrea Lichtenecker, September 2009